Tribunal suspends nurse for two years for professional misconduct

15 Jul 2019

A tribunal has reprimanded an enrolled nurse and suspended her registration for two years after she admitted to withdrawing cash from a patient’s bank card for personal use.

In 2017, Ms Rochelle Mary Bain was employed as an enrolled nurse at a residential aged care facility where she had developed a close friendship with a patient from early 2016. Ms Bain assisted the patient with errands and purchased items for her with the patient’s permission.

On 1 May 2017, Ms Bain took the patient’s debit card and a piece of paper containing the card’s PIN without permission and withdrew $1,000 for her own personal use. She repeated this conduct the next day. Ms Bain repaid the money into the patient’s account in four tranches.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) received a notification about Ms Bain’s conduct on 24 May 2017 and on 16 June 2017 took immediate action under the National Law to suspend Ms Bain’s registration.

NMBA referred Ms Bain to the South Australian Health Practitioner Tribunal (tribunal) on 20 April 2018. Ms Bain did not contest any of the four grounds in the Complaint filed in the tribunal, and accepted that her conduct detailed in the Complaint amounted to professional misconduct.

On 10 July 2018, the tribunal reprimanded Ms Bain, suspended her registration for two years effective immediately and ordered her to pay the NMBA’s costs in an agreed amount. The tribunal noted that the conduct was a significant departure from the standard expected of a nurse of Ms Bain’s experience and training.

For more information please see the tribunal orders.