Ibtisam Abdulkadir: Aged care nurse used resident’s credit card to pay student fees
A Chadstone aged care nurse and prominent Somali community member used a patient’s credit card to pay off student debts and buy fancy electronics.
South East
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A thieving nurse and prominent Somali community member who used a vulnerable patient’s credit card to pay off student debt and buy wireless headphones has been struck off.
Ibtisam Abdulkadir, from Chadstone, was working as a personal care attendant at aged care home when she took photos of a resident’s credit card and used the details to make a number of personal transactions.
Ms Abdulkadir was sacked after the centre found out she had used the card details to make six transactions, including paying her Australian Catholic University fees of $3005 and her $170 membership to the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency, as well as splashing $3704 on wireless headphones, an iPhone 7 Plus and food supplements.
Ms Abdulkadir was pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the Magistrates’ Court and was fined $2000 without conviction.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia also sought to have her nursing registration cancelled after she failed to disclose she had been found guilty of the charges.
The tribunal also heard Ms Abdulkadir had allegedly provided the university with fake documents in an attempt to graduate from a Bachelor of Nursing despite her enrolment having been terminated after she failed multiple units.
Ms Abdulkadir is accused of creating a fake graduation confirmation email and tickets to the ceremony, as well as a false course completion email.
The Board said Ms Abdulkadir’s conduct was “extremely serious”.
Ms Abdulkadir told the tribunal she had been under pressure from her family to finish her studies, get her diploma and start working as a nurse, and she wanted to make them proud.
She said since her actions went against her cultural and religious standards and she had “held my head (in) shame and could not bear to bring myself to sit at a table amongst my friends and family” since the incident.
“I felt as if I let a lot of people down, including all individuals that I had sworn to protect with my honour and career,” she said.
Ms Abdulkadir said she had been thrown out of home since she “made the mistakes” and had been staying in emergency accommodation.
She told the tribunal she had made attempts to rehabilitate by helping others through the Somali Australian Business and Professionals Incorporated group, including guiding young graduates to find careers and working with social workers to help troubled Somali community members.
Tribunal senior member Anna Dea and members Marietta Bylhouwer and Rosslyn Pearson said while they “have sympathy” for Ms Abdulkadir’s challenging family situation, they had “limited confidence” in her remorse for her conduct.
“We cannot help but agree with the Board’s submissions that her conduct reveals a pattern of dishonesty and a lack of insight,” they said.
“While one might describe impulsive acts driven by high degrees of stress as ‘mistakes’, the prolonged use and attempted use of the resident’s card does not meet that descriptor.
“The fact Ms Abdulkadir had only just completed her training and become registered (at the time of the offending) does not assist her as the offences represent dishonesty of a kind which ought not be displayed by any person, not to mention a member of the nursing profession.”
Ms Abdulkadir was reprimanded and banned from providing any health services involving provision of care to persons in residential aged care, home or community-based care or disability care for two years.
