A BULLYING nurse who attacked her colleagues was allowed to remain in the profession today.

Aldrona Christian repeatedly grabbed care assistant Debbie Parkes by the upper arm while working at a brain injury centre in Newport.

She also left care assistant Gulia Ramon in tears by punching her in the back without warning but was today handed only a caution.

The senior nurse managed to stop her colleagues complaining about her by pretending she was related to their manager at the Mount Eveswell Young Persons Unit.

The panel found that staff had not raised concerns about Ms Christian as they were convinced that the unit manager, Manoj George, was her nephew.

Paula Burton, chairwoman of the misconduct panel at the Nursing and Midwifery Council, said: "You used physical and verbal abuse towards members of staff.

"You were their senior colleague, in a position of authority, and your behaviour was unprofessional, demoralising and hurtful to those members of staff."

Mrs Burton said her behaviour fell below the standards expected of a registered nurse and constituted misconduct but said there were no issues in respect of risk of patient harm in this case.

Ms Christian's fitness to practice was deemed to be impaired due to this misconduct and she was given a two-year caution order.

Mrs Burton said the panel noted she displayed "bullying, intimidating and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace."

Miss Ramon told the hearing Christian punched her in the back on September 23, 2011.

"Aldrona was a bully and said things like ‘I will kill you.’” Miss Ramon said.

The panel was satisfied that Ms Christian punched Miss Ramon and pinched Miss Parkes on more than one occasion.

"It was Miss Ramon's evidence that you were very rough with people and said things that were not appropriate," said Mrs Burton.

Nurse resigned after probe announced Ms Christian was found to have shouted at a carer who refused to take a resident out for a cigarette before being cleaned as the elderly woman was covered in faeces.

She was cleared of referring to care assistants as scum after the panel accepted she did not know what the word meant.

Christian was not held responsible for an incident in which a sex toy was removed from a patient's room and she was cleared of administering medication in a dangerous manner.

Charges that she hit a Huntingdon's sufferer with spoon and shoved a disabled woman into a lift were also found not proved.

The nurse resigned from the Mount Eveswell Young Persons Unit in September 2012, soon after finding out she was to be investigated for alleged misconduct.