Enrolled nurse prohibited from providing health services for four years after she forged prescriptions

06 Jul 2023

An enrolled nurse has been disqualified from applying for registration for a period of four years after she stole a pad and forged prescriptions, breached a condition on her registration and knowingly made false and misleading statements to Ahpra and The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). 

On 19 October 2019, the NMBA received a notification from Ms Seabrook’s employer advising that her employment had been terminated following advice that she had been arrested and charged with offences related to theft of a prescription pad and the forging of medications. 

Ms Seabrook failed to notify the NMBA within the seven-day period that she had been charged with offences punishable by 12 months or more imprisonment and of her convictions.

The NMBA took immediate action and imposed conditions on Ms Seabrook’s registration prohibiting her from possessing supplying, administering, handling, dispensing, accessing and/or checking Schedule 4 or 8 substances. A further notification was received on 19 February 2020 alleging a breach of conditions in having access to Schedule 8 medications, and other matters.

During the investigation Ms Seabrook also knowingly made a false or misleading statement in connection with her access to Schedule 8 substances and provided documents which she had altered or knew had been altered, to mislead the investigation into her conduct. 

The NMBA referred Ms Seabrook to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (the Tribunal) which found that Ms Seabrook had engaged in a way that constitutes professional misconduct and ordered that she: 

• be reprimanded,
• be disqualified from applying for registration as a nurse for a period of four years from 5 October 2022,
• be prohibited from providing any health service for a period of four years from 5 October 2022, and 
• pay the Board’s costs. 

The Tribunal noted that ‘The deliberate alteration of the documentation makes it clear Ms Seabrook understood what the issue was, and she was prepared to fraudulently alter documents presented to a formal investigation to conceal the nature of her role. We regard this dishonesty, associated with the non-compliance with the Conditions on her registration, as very serious in terms of ongoing risk to the public.’ 

The Tribunal’s decision was made on 5 October 2022 and published 3 March 2023 on the Austlii website.