Nurse left dementia patient grimacing in agony
Michael Callaghan, 66, also missed several other patients out of his drug round, including one who relied on treatment to help her breathe, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
The nurse resigned when a suspicious colleague allegedly caught him out by measuring the medication before and after his shift.
Callaghan denies the omissions while working the night shift at Drake Nursing Home, a centre treating dementia sufferers in Plymouth, Devon, in March 2006.
Colleague Nichola Strutt told the Nursing and Midwifery Council how Callaghan's failings with the drugs came amid other claims relating to his conduct with patients.
But Hannah Capgrass, for the NMC, offered no evidence in relation to charges of physical and verbal abuse of seven patients in 2005 after key witnesses failed to turn up to today's hearing.
Mrs Strutt, who would hand over to Callaghan when he arrived for the night shift, told the panel she counted one patient's medication after becoming suspicious she was not receiving the codeine-based pain killer Solpadol she needed to dull severe nerve pain in her mouth.
She said: 'I had been instrumental in getting Patient I some pain relief because I could tell she was in a lot of pain.
'It was very hard to tell but she used to grind her teeth quite considerably.
'The GP felt she was grinding her teeth so much she was grinding the nerves.
'She would grimace quite a lot.
'I feel she could not carry on in that type of pain.
'After I got this medication prescribed she was smiling and more relaxed.
'But she seemed to be in more pain on the mornings after Mr Callaghan had done a night shift.
'She was grimacing more and less likely to eat her breakfast.'
Mrs Strutt examined the packet and there seemed to a surplus of tablets when she totted up how much the woman should have had over a month.
To be certain she counted them before and after Callaghan's shift on March 21.
She said: 'There were the same number as there were before I left.'
Another patient with severe breathing problems did not receive her Atrovent Nebuliser during the same shift, claimed the nurse.
Mrs Strutt added: 'It's a steroid drug, a bronchial dilator for people who have asthma or breathing problems.
'Patient H had dementia so she was unable to tell us she had breathing problems.
'We would have to look at her to read the signs.
'She was prescribed it about four times a day.
'That's quite a lot.
'I counted all the ampoules.
'The following morning I noticed exactly the same number of ampoules there.'
Mrs Strutt also used a pen to mark the level on a bottle of liquid laxative which Callaghan was supposed to give to several patients, but it had not gone down the following day.
Callaghan, from Plymouth, denies three charges that he failed to administer drugs.
The hearing continues.
