Tribunal suspends nurse for seven months for falsifying documents

16 Jan 2019

A tribunal has suspended a nurse’s registration for seven months after she admitted to falsifying documents to try to gain employment.

The State Administrative Tribunal in Western Australia (the tribunal) reprimanded Ms Mercy Buranda Miruka and suspended her registration for seven months after she admitted to professional misconduct concerning the falsifying of documents.

Ms Miruka admitted that in October 2017 she had falsified documents and provided them to a prospective employer to try to gain employment as a registered nurse in the area of mental health. The false documents included fake records of Ms Miruka working as a mental health nurse and performance appraisals which never took place.

The tribunal reprimanded Ms Miruka (with a five-year end date to the reprimand), suspended her registration for seven months and ordered her to pay $2,000 towards the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s costs.

The tribunal took into account that Ms Miruka had no prior disciplinary history, had expressed remorse and co-operated with the investigation, and had self-initiated completing further education on conduct and ethics.

The tribunal’s decision is published on the eCourts Portal of Western Australia website.