A nurse who played a series of dangerous, "inappropriate and degrading" practical jokes, including drawing a face on an MRSA sufferer's hernia, was struck off today.

Christine Mitchelson, 53, who also put a patient's glass eye in a cup of Coca-Cola, was found guilty of misconduct after a disciplinary hearing ruled she had put patients' health at serious risk and offended her colleagues with racist remarks.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council's conduct and competence committee found that 12 allegations against the nurse from Newcastle-upon-Tyne were all proved.

Ms Mitchelson was found to have slapped and pushed patients, incorrectly administered drugs, falsified body temperature and blood pressure readings and to have made racist remarks about Filipina nurses.

The disciplinary committee chairwoman, Val Morrison, said Ms Mitchelson posed a "continuing risk" to patients and leaving her on the nursing register would "undermine public confidence and trust in the profession".

Mrs Morrison said the nurse had "compromised the dignity" of her patients at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary with her behaviour between late 2001 and early 2004. She was found to have roughly treated five different patients, by pushing them on to a bed or chair, and in one case slapping one on the head.

Her poor standards of practice were "unsafe, dishonest and a failure of her duty of care", added Mrs Morrison. The nurse could have put a patient with MRSA at risk by drawing a smiley face on his hernia, the committee ruled.

Piers Arnold, representing the NMC, said: "The registrant's inability to distinguish between humour and inappropriate and degrading behaviour is well illustrated by the reported instances of her placing a glass eye in a colleague's drink and of her drawing a picture on a patient's hernia, both of which incidents clearly shocked the members of staff who witnessed them."

The hearing was earlier told that Ms Mitchelson gave her colleague Pauline Stanton, the sister on her ward, a cup of Coca Cola containing a patient's glass eye.

The nurse claimed she had sought the patient's permission to take the false eye to use in a practical joke and had washed it before putting it in the drink, the committee heard.