UK Sacks Nigerian Health Care Worker Who Lacked Basic Knowledge About Human Body

 Dietician who bluffed her way into senior NHS job is struck off after colleagues discovered she didn't know where the intestines were, what a gallbladder did or how to calculate BMI

A dietician who bluffed her way into a senior NHS job by exaggerating her experience has been struck off after colleagues found she did not know 'basic anatomy' and could have put patients at risk.

Ifenyinwa Chizube Ndulue-Nonso was hired as a dietician at Manchester Royal Infirmary in 2024.

Having moved from Nigeria, she claimed to have experience working with a range of different health problems and nutrition-related diseases as well as working with people with eating disorders and cancer.

However within days of beginning her role, colleagues quickly discovered worrying gaps in her knowledge and inconsistencies with her application.

They found she could barely answer questions about dietetics, struggled to calculate BMI and had only a 'basic understanding of human anatomy'- even mixing up the small and large intestine.

Mrs Ndulue-Nonso also could not identify a feeding tube, explain what coeliac disease was and believed radiology was used to treat heart failure.

Concerned by her lack of knowledge, the Trust launched an investigation and suspended her within weeks, fearing she was unsafe to practice.

At a disciplinary hearing, the Trust found her guilty of gross misconduct. She was sacked and her appeal failed.

A dietician who bluffed her way into a senior NHS job by exaggerating her experience has been struck off after colleagues found she did not know 'basic anatomy' and could have put patients at risk

A Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) hearing found that she deliberately lied on her application form and during her interview, and was not qualified for her role.

Mrs Ndulue-Nonso 'minimised' concerns raised, admitting she had overstated her knowledge and experience 'a bit', putting it down to cultural differences.

But the panel found her dishonesty was premeditated and deliberate, putting patients at risk by misrepresenting her knowledge and experience to 'benefit her personally'.

They said she had 'much to gain personally from securing employment in the UK, including the right to reside here with her family'.

The only reason no one was harmed was because of the precautions taken by her supervisors, who did not allow her to be patient-facing, the panel said.

The panel was told that Mrs Ndulue-Nonso applied for a Band 6 Rotational Dietitian role at the trust in August or September 2023. She was the only person interviewed for the role.

In her interview, she was assessed as having suitable skills and knowledge, scoring 28 out of 45 points.

The Trust received satisfactory references about her previous roles, and she began work on 19 February 2024, having moved from Nigeria to the UK.

Two weeks later on February 28, her line manager, Curtis Roberts, returned from annual leave and met Mrs Ndulue-Nonso.

He immediately discovered that her descriptions of her previous role were inconsistent with what she had described in her application form.

Her colleague Lorna Haywood, who was the other Band 7 dietician in the team, had already started a supervision log after becoming concerned about her lack of knowledge. [color=#990000][b]Just three days into the job, Ms Haywood has asked Mrs Ndulue-Nonso which part of the intestine comes after the stomach in the digestion