A Nigerian-born nurse, Chimzuruoke Okembunachi, has had her nursing licence cancelled in Australia after a tribunal found that she repeatedly slept while on night duty at an aged care facility, thereby exposing elderly residents to serious risk. The New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) ruled on January 20 that her actions amounted to professional misconduct, leading to the cancellation of her registration as a nurse.
The tribunal heard that the incidents occurred in March 2024 at Hardi Aged Care facility in Guildford, western Sydney, where Okembunachi had begun working in February 2024. According to evidence presented, the 25-year-old was often the only registered nurse on duty during night shifts, supervising three to four assistants-in-nursing and responsible for about 100 residents. On at least six occasions between March 13 and March 27, she was found to have fallen asleep while on duty, resulting in failures to carry out her responsibilities, including three instances where residents missed prescribed doses of morphine.
Further testimony revealed that on one occasion an assistant attempted to wake her by switching on the light at the nurses’ station, only for her to turn it off and resume sleeping. On another occasion, she allegedly instructed an assistant-in-nursing, who was not authorised to administer medication, to give Panadol to a resident. The matter was reported by two nurses on March 27, and Okembunachi was suspended the following day. She resigned shortly after receiving the suspension notice and declined to attend a disciplinary meeting. Born in Nigeria, she migrated to Australia in 2018, obtained a Bachelor of Nursing Science in 2021 and was studying medicine at Western Sydney University at the time of the incidents.