Tribunal reprimands nurse and imposes registration conditions for providing false information

21 Dec 2017

A tribunal has fined and reprimanded a nurse, and imposed conditions on her registration, after she provided false information in her application for registration.

On 6 September 2016, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) received a complaint alleging, among other things, that Miss Sijo Philip had provided a fraudulent document in her application for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) in order to meet the NMBA’s Recency of practice registration standard.

Investigation of the matter revealed that Miss Philip had also provided further false information in her application and made a declaration that the information contained in the application was true to the best of her knowledge and belief.

Following investigation, on 14 August 2017 the NMBA referred the matter to the State Administrative Tribunal of Western Australia (the tribunal).

Miss Philip admitted she had behaved in a way that constitutes professional misconduct and the matter was resolved by consent at mediation.

On 4 October 2017, the tribunal found that Miss Philip had behaved in a way that constitutes professional misconduct and ordered that she be reprimanded, fined $4,000 and that she pay a contribution to the NMBA’s costs, agreed at $3,900.

Conditions were also placed on her registration requiring that she complete a NMBA-approved education course, including a reflective practice report on ethical decision-making.

The decision has been published on the tribunal’s website.