Former Monash Children’s Hospital nurse reprimanded after sharing baby’s records

A nurse who was reprimanded for sharing a vulnerable baby’s medical records online tried to cover up the breach with this bizarre defence.

A former Melbourne nurse who posted a baby’s medical information online in a “gross breach of trust” has been temporarily banned from nursing.

A former Melbourne nurse who posted a baby’s medical information online in a “gross breach of trust” – before trying to blame an overseas sister – has been temporarily banned from nursing.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal cancelled Purnima Ramayanam’s nursing registration for three years after she “put vulnerable infants at risk of harm” by falsifying patient records, misled her University about her experience and — when investigated — began a “prolonged and elaborate course of deception”.

The order was handed down last week and comes after Ramayanam was reported to the regulator by her former workplace Monash Children’s Hospital in August 2019, where she had looked after newborns from May 2016 until July 2019.

Tribunal documents show she copied the medical records of a Monash patient – known as ‘Baby G’ – onto a USB to take home in April 2019.

The registered nurse, who was undertaking further study at La Trobe University, later uploaded the information to an “assignment help” website, making Baby G’s name, date of birth, health management plan and mother’s name publicly accessible.

It was discovered by the hospital in June and Ramayanam – after learning of Monash’s investigation – resigned.

The former nurse has been temporarily banned from nursing.

The Tribunal heard she claimed “without evidence” she quit Monash because of racism and verbal abuse, and began working at another hospital in September.

The regulator suspended her registration in March 2021 pending further inquiries.

The Tribunal also reprimanded Ramayanam for her “elaborate manufacturing of a fraudulent document” post-resignation, when she edited her former supervisor’s letter to her University to falsely claim she was clinically competent in areas including “high-risk delivery”.

The Tribunal heard, if her edits were undetected, Ramayanam could have passed a subject without achieving competency, putting patients, including vulnerable premature babies, at “significant potential risk”.

Before leaving Monash, the Tribunal also heard she had broken a policy requiring a second nurse to double-check certain doses when she gave a medication, Caffeine Citrate, to a baby in July 2018.

She falsified the infant’s records, adding another nurse’s initials to their chart to wrongly claim they had checked the dose.

Despite a formal warning, she broke this policy again when she gave two infants expressed breast milk several times and falsified their records during an April 2019 shift.

A Monash Health spokesman said “following an investigation, Monash Health reported Ms Purnima Ramayanam to the Nurse and Midwifery Board of Australia, via the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, on 16 August 2019”.

The VCAT hearing, which Ramayanam “left without warning” part way through, also heard she doubled down on an “increasingly complex web of lies” when questioned multiple times by the regulator – despite knowing lying to investigators was an offence.

She claimed a sister in India accidentally uploaded Baby G’s medical record and was responsible for editing and sending the supervisor letter, submitting audio and a statement where a person purporting to be her sister took responsibility.

The board could not confirm if a sister or stepsister existed.

Ramayanam – after further evidence was presented – eventually admitted to everything, said she was “under stress” at the time and was “very ashamed’, had quickly told her University the letter was fake and did not oppose the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s submission for a three year disqualification.

But the Tribunal was “not satisfied” she had “genuine insight or remorse” and in scathing comments, said she put “her interests above the interests of a vulnerable infant and [their] family” by stealing medical information and “repeatedly breached her position of trust”.

If Ramayanam wishes to nurse again, she can apply after three years but will need to prove she is a “fit and proper person”.