Royal Hobart Hospital nurse disqualified after committing list of criminal offences

A Royal Hobart Hospital nurse has been disqualified from practice for two years after committing a host of criminal offences and but keeping that information from the national registration board. Her offences.

Royal Hobart Hospital.

A Royal Hobart Hospital nurse has been disqualified from practice for two years after committing a host of criminal offences – including resisting police – but keeping that information from the national registration board.

In its newly-published decision, the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal said the nurse was first registered in 1983, but her registration lapsed in 2011.

When she attempted to re-register in 2012, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) conducted a criminal history check, which revealed a number of offences between 2001 and 2006 including convictions for using an unregistered motor vehicle on three occasions.

The check also unveiled pending charges of resisting police, using indecent language, assault, damage to property and entering private property in 2011.

The nurse was granted re-registration, but with conditions imposed, including that she must attend sessions with a psychologist.

Royal Hobart Hospital.

Tribunal senior member Lucinda Jack said after this, the nurse was charged with six counts of obtaining a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity – charges that she was required to notify the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia about within seven days.

However, the nurse failed to do so.

Ms Jack said the nurse was also required to include her criminal history in her annual statement when seeking renewal of registration.

In August 2013, the nurse was found guilty of three charges of obtaining a financial advantage from a Commonwealth entity, but had no conviction recorded.

In December that year, the nurse was found guilty of five counts of resisting police and two counts of failing to answer bail, but also had no conviction recorded.

She again failed to notify the board of either matter.

The nurse was required to include her criminal history in her annual statement when seeking renewal of registration.

The nurse also failed to notify the board when she was found guilty of two counts of assault, plus entering private property, damaging property and using indecent language – although those charges were later either withdrawn, struck out or dismissed.

Then in 2018, she was convicted of multiple vehicle offences, including using a vehicle while its registration was suspended, using a vehicle with no premium cover, and driving without a licence.

In 2019, the board imposed a condition on her registration, that she not practise as a nurse – but she worked 42 shifts between February and June that year – falsely telling AHPRA she wasn’t working.

Ms Jack accepted submissions from the board that the nurse had engaged in professional misconduct by working when she was not supposed to, engaging in criminal conduct, and failing to notify the board about that conduct.

She reprimanded the nurse, who did not engage in the tribunal proceedings, plus disqualified her from practice for two years.

The nurse’s name was anonymised in the tribunal decision.

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