A former Hobart nurse who took morphine and fentanyl from the Royal Hobart Hospital and drew up water or saline into syringes meant for patients has been indefinitely banned from applying to work as a nurse.
The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) reprimanded and disqualified him last week.
He must apply to the tribunal to be allowed back and cannot do so for at least six months.
The tribunal found he misappropriated Schedule 8 drugs on five occasions between April 24 and May 5, 2023, while working in the emergency department. Four patients were affected.
Each time he drew up water or saline into the syringe intended for the patient, then falsely recorded in the drug register that the prescribed dose had been given.
Senior Member Lucinda Jack said the conduct “not only deprived several patients of the benefit of prescribed pain-relieving medication, but falsely recorded that those medications had, in fact been administered”.
“The same conduct also amounted to serious breaches of trust in the respondent, in his role as a registered nurse working in a high-pressure public hospital setting and involved inherently dangerous substances,” she said.
The Department of Health suspended him from work on May 17, 2023.
When the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia proposed suspending his registration, he told it a colleague had administered the medication on one occasion and that he had “never put the public health at risk”.
The board suspended him on June 28, 2023. TASCAT set that decision aside in November 2023 and imposed conditions instead.
Senior Member Jack said the false submissions “displayed a lack of honesty and integrity” and undermined “the integrity of the regulatory system relating to health practitioners”.
The man admitted both grounds and agreed his conduct was professional misconduct.
“There is a clear need for general deterrence,” Senior Member Jack said.
“It is appropriate to signal to practitioners and the public that behaviour of this nature will be viewed seriously.”
“It is conduct that is not only a breach of professional obligations, but also a breach of the trust that is placed in nurses by their employers, patients and the public.”
The tribunal accepted he had sought treatment and shown “a level of insight”.
His registration lapsed in 2024 and he resigned from the hospital in May 2025.
It suppressed his identity, accepting a psychologist’s evidence that publication risked his mental health and found the circumstances “special, exceptional or out of the ordinary”.
