A Nigerian immigrant nurse has been struck off for at least nine months for taking long naps during her shifts at a western Sydney aged care home.
Chimzururuoke Okembunachi, 25, was caught taking naps on five occasions for periods of up to four hours while she was the only registered nurse and in charge of three or four Assistants-In-Nursing (AINs) at Hardi Aged Care in Guildford in March 2024, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard this week.
Okembunachi, who is currently studying a Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Western Sydney and collecting Centrelink benefits, also failed to administer a patient’s medication, and directed an AIN to administer medication she was not authorised for, the tribunal heard.
She further failed to properly inform herself of the clinical status of her patients by not logging in to the system during a shift as required, and the tribunal found her conduct had the potential to “endanger the lives of patients”.
The tribunal found on one occasion she took a four-hour and 24-minute nap while lying across three chairs in the nurses station, and that a patient failed to get their charted medication on multiple occasions because Okembunachi was sleeping.
Other naps taken when she was supposing to be working lasted for 1 hour and 41 minutes, 1 hour and 10 minutes, 2 hours and 30 minutes, 2 hours and 20 minutes, and 2 hours and 9 minutes.
During one shift, Okembunachi was woken up by an AIN who said a patient was requesting medication for foot pain. Okembunachi told the AIN to give the elderly man a Panadol, even though she was not authorised to do so, and when the AIN questioned her she said: “It’s okay sister, just give it to him.”
Two other nurses then made a complaint to her employer, and she was called into a meeting and had her employment suspended, but did not attend the meeting and resigned instead.
Her employer reported her to the Health Care Complaints Commission, and less than a month later the Nursing and Midwives Council of NSW suspended her registration.
The tribunal heard Okembunachi was born in Nigeria and briefly studied in Ireland and the Caribbean before moving to Queensland at age 19 where she obtained a Bachelor of Nursing Science from the University of Sunshine Coast.
She then began her medicine degree while working five days a week at BUPA Aged Care, but failed a mid-year anatomy exam, forcing her to take a leave of absence. She resumed her studies in 2024, and began doing night shifts at Hardi Aged Care.
Okembunachi admitted to two complaints of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct made by the Commission, and accepted full responsibility at the tribunal.
She said she was suffering from migraines and chronic iron deficiency, and was stressed due to her sister’s spinal surgery which she was paying for, but that she now looked back at her actions with “shame and embarrassment”.
“My conduct was terrible. Not only was the conduct of sleeping while I should have been working but also understand how my conduct would have made the junior staff feel at the HAC, and the difficult position my actions put the AINs in. It is conduct I will never engage in ever again,” she said.
“The acts of the practitioner had the potential to endanger the lives of patients under her care. In our view, any order short of deregistration would be an inadequate response to the seriousness of the practitioner’s misconduct,” the tribunal stated in its decision.
But the tribunal also noted that Okembunachi was “clearly remorseful and contrite”, “demonstrated insight, and been conspicuously honest in her evidence”, cancelled her registration, and ordered she not be able to review the cancellation for nine months rather than the 12 sought by the Commission.
Header image: Left, right, Chimzururuoke Okembunachi (Instagram).
The post Nigerian nurse struck off for sleeping on job at Sydney aged care home first appeared on The Noticer.
The NoticerRead More
R1
T1
