Sandra Marie Young

Introduction

Sandra Marie Young is a nurse who has been struck off the register of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the professional regulator for nurses in the United Kingdom. Registered under the number 80A0180S, she was erased — the regulator’s term for being struck off — by the NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee at a review hearing on 7 July 2026, with the striking-off order taking effect at the end of 12 August 2026. The findings that led to her removal concerned a single night’s shift in October 2022, during which, the panel found, she failed to take observations after a patient collapsed, then dishonestly recorded observations and an escalation she had never made, and watched TV on her phone while on duty.

Background Information

The public record of Young’s case is the NMC determination itself, which names no hospital, care home or employer and gives no biographical details beyond her profession and registration number. What it does record is a discrete incident: charges concerning 12 and 13 October 2022, relating to a patient identified only as Patient A. Those charges were found proved by way of admission at an original substantive hearing, and a six-month suspension order was imposed on 14 January 2026. The hearing of 7 July 2026 was the first review of that suspension. NMC review hearings exist because suspension is temporary by design: the panel must reassess whether impairment persists, whether insight has developed, and whether the sanction should change. In Young’s case it decided both that impairment persisted and that suspension should be replaced with a striking-off order.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The original findings — including the dishonesty findings — were made by an NMC panel on the civil standard and carried through the review. They were never criminally charged or adjudicated in court.

At the original substantive hearing, the charges found proved by way of admission were that, between 12 and 13 October 2022 and in relation to Patient A, Young “failed to take observations following the patient collapsing”; “documented that the patient had a NEWS score of zero when she had not taken any observations”; and “documented that the patient had been escalated to the RMO when she had not done so”. Her conduct in recording the score and the escalation was found to be dishonest, in that she “sought to mislead others that she had provided care when she knew she had not done so”. It was also found proved that between 12 and 13 October 2022 she “watched TV on her phone whilst on shift”. Her fitness to practise was found impaired by reason of misconduct. The determination does not record what became of Patient A after the collapse, and no separate harm findings are set out against Young.

Public Reaction and Consequences

At the review, the panel acknowledged that Young had “accepted her misconduct and apologised”, which it considered demonstrated some insight consistent with her early admissions, but it found there remained “no evidence of reflection demonstrating an understanding of the impact of her misconduct on patients and the public” and concluded her insight was insufficient. It noted that “none of the reflective evidence, training, remediation or testimonials identified by the original panel had been provided”. Finding “no material change since the original hearing and a continuing risk of repetition”, the panel determined that her fitness to practise remained impaired on public protection and public interest grounds. No public statement from Young and no media coverage of the hearing feature in the determination; the published record consists of the panel’s own findings and its sanction.

Current Status

Young is struck off the NMC register, with the striking-off order effective at the end of 12 August 2026. Being struck off “removes the practitioner from the register. They are no longer permitted to practise this profession in the UK. Erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite.” In the review she said, by email dated 23 January 2026, that she “intended to retire and had no intention of returning to nursing”, but the panel was “not satisfied that this intention was sufficiently settled and could not rely on it when assessing the risk of repetition”, absent supporting evidence or an application for voluntary removal.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The erasure ends Young’s ability to practise as a nurse in the United Kingdom, and the register can only be revisited through a review no earlier than five years after erasure takes effect. At sanction, the panel had concluded that “conditions of practice would not be workable” and that “a further period of suspension would serve no useful purpose”. It considered whether to allow her registration simply to lapse under NMC guidance Rev-2h, but decided this “would permit readmission at any time” and would not satisfy the overriding objective of public protection. The panel concluded that “a striking-off order was the only appropriate and proportionate sanction”. For a nurse whose findings centred on dishonesty in patient records, the trajectory recorded in the determination is narrow but consistent: admissions and an apology at the original hearing, no reflective evidence since, and an intention to retire that the panel could not treat as settled.