Nigerian Nurse Loses Licence for Sleeping on Duty at Australian Aged Care Facility
By: Israel Adeleke
OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports as gathered that a 25-year-old Nigerian-born nurse, Chimzuruoke Okembunachi, has been stripped of her nursing licence in Australia after a tribunal found her guilty of serious professional misconduct for repeatedly sleeping while on duty during night shifts at an aged care facility in western Sydney.
OTN News further reports as gathered that the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) earlier this week ordered that Okembunachi be deregistered and struck off the nursing register, ruling that her actions posed a significant risk to the safety and wellbeing of elderly residents under her care.
Okembunachi was employed as a registered nurse at Hardi Aged Care (HAC) in Guildford in February 2024 but was suspended less than a month later. She subsequently resigned from her position.
Tribunal proceedings revealed that between March 13 and March 27, 2024, Okembunachi was rostered for multiple night shifts during which she was the sole registered nurse responsible for supervising up to four assistants-in-nursing (AINs) and approximately 100 residents.
During this period, the tribunal found that she fell asleep on duty on six separate occasions, often at the nurses’ station, and failed to carry out essential clinical and supervisory responsibilities.
On three of those nights, residents were reportedly denied their prescribed doses of morphine because Okembunachi was asleep.
In one incident on the night of March 21–22, an assistant-in-nursing woke her by turning on the light at the nurses’ station, only for Okembunachi to switch the light off again shortly afterwards and return to sleep.
The tribunal also heard evidence that on March 15, Okembunachi instructed an assistant-in-nursing to administer Panadol to a male resident, despite the assistant not being authorised to dispense medication.
When the assistant queried the instruction, Okembunachi allegedly replied, “It’s okay sister, just give it to him.”
Concerns about her conduct were reported to management by two nurses on March 27. The following day, Okembunachi was notified by email that she had been suspended and was invited to attend a meeting.
About 20 minutes after receiving the email, she tendered her resignation and declined to attend the meeting.
Subsequently, the Health Care Complaints Commission lodged a formal complaint, leading to the suspension of her nursing registration pending the outcome of the tribunal hearing.
Okembunachi, who was born in Nigeria and relocated to Australia in 2018, earned a Bachelor of Nursing Science from the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2021. At the time of the incidents, she was also enrolled in a medicine degree at Western Sydney University.
In her testimony before the tribunal, she cited migraines, academic pressure and financial stress related to family obligations, including the cost of her sister’s scoliosis surgery, as factors that contributed to her exhaustion. She accepted responsibility for her actions and acknowledged the risks her conduct posed to residents.
“When I slept on night shift, I failed in supervising staff members and the residents,” she told the tribunal.
While the panel acknowledged that Okembunachi was remorseful and forthcoming during proceedings, it concluded that the seriousness of her misconduct warranted the most severe sanction.
“The acts of the practitioner had the potential to endanger the lives of patients under her care,” the tribunal ruled, adding that any penalty short of deregistration would be inadequate to protect the public and maintain confidence in the nursing profession.
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