thank you guys, for your advice so far having thought about things and seeking advice from various quarters however, I decided not to attend the hearing as it is: -with an employer who I no longer work for and have no intention of working for again, hence disciplinary action is a fairly redundant exercise -to be held at the nearest agency office, which is however still a considerable distance from where I live and not at all accessible and frankly after 6 ludicrous months of waiting around in which I have managed to rebuild my life I just cant be bothered with it anymore. As far as I can tell the worst that could happen now is that the matter is referred to the nmc, and to be perfectly honest I would be a lot happier attending a hearing with them as at least the matter will be dealt with professionally and not by an evidently totally incompetent and uncaring joke of a nursing agency... I have informed the agency by email that I effectovely no longer work for them, have not done so for 6 months and that if I am still registered with them I tender my resignation immediately. They have responded to say that they accept my resignation but must still proceed with the disciplinary hearing in my absence and will send me a letter of the outcome So I will just wait and see, but am quietly confident that after 6 months the whole thing is likely to come to nothing, as things often do... Will keep u posted...

Let me set the scene as briefly as I can I am a mental health nurse, have been practising for several years. I have just been informed that I am required to attend a disciplinary hearing with a nursing agency I was working for until earlier this year when I was suspended. In brief, I was working on a ward and was assigned to constant in eyesight observations for a young male patient due to violence and absconding risks. At the time due to staff breaks and another nurse arriving late for the shift I was the only nurse on the unit. The other rmn arrived and I decided to give him a very quick handover in the nursing office, but was able to keep the patient within eyesight at all times through the office windows and he was giving no cause for concern. Unfortunately and incredibly the patient managed to abscond because a) my attention had been briefly distracted from him while handing over to the new nurse and b) during the brief time I was distracted the patient followed a member of staff who was leaving the ward through THREE locked doors without detection by that staff. The alarm was raised immediately but he managed to get away. The patient was brought back to the ward the next day by police unharmed and without any incident occurring and I continued to work on the ward. However I was then informed by the agency that the ward had made a complaint about me regarding the incident and I was prevented from working any shifts while an investigation took place. It has taken 6 months to hear that I now face a disciplinary hearing. The issue I now have is, following 5 months of being unemployed (the nursing agency job was my only one at the time) I have recently started a new nursing job with a private company. So should I bother to attend the disciplinary hearing? It is with an employer (the agency) whom I no longer work for and have no intention of working for again. I have a new permanent job that is going ok. I am seriously thinking of telling the agency that I have no intention of working again for them and to consider myself as resigning from them and therefore will not be attending any disciplinary hearing with them. I have been through incredible stress and hardship over the last 6 months and really dont want to start going through more after having found a new job and trying to put things behind me. The only other factor is of course the fact that my employment and practice as a nurse is governed by the nmc (nursing and midwifery council) and the agency would still have the option of taking the matter to them regardless of whether or not I attend the disciplinary hearing. And they, of course determine who is fit to practise as a nurse, so effectively control my whole nursing career...And yet I am sure they deal with many far more serious complaints about nurses' practice than mine, so hopefully would not be so condemning as to strike me off? surely...? What to do? Attend the hearing or not? Grateful for all thoughts and advice on this complex issue...