A Nigerian-born nurse has been deregistered in Australia after a tribunal found that she repeatedly slept while on duty during night shifts at an aged care facility in Sydney.
Chimzuruoke Okembunachi, 25, had her nursing registration cancelled and her name removed from the register after the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled that her actions amounted to professional misconduct, reports Daily Mail.
Ms Okembunachi began work as a registered nurse at Hardi Aged Care (HAC) in Guildford, western Sydney, in February 2024. Barely a month later, she was suspended from duty and subsequently resigned.
In its decision delivered on Tuesday, the tribunal found that Okembunachi had been rostered for night shifts between March 13 and March 27, 2024, during which she was the sole registered nurse overseeing between three and four assistants-in-nursing (AINs) and about 100 elderly residents.
The panel noted that on six separate nights, she failed to properly carry out her responsibilities because she fell asleep while on duty. On three of those occasions, the tribunal heard, patients missed their prescribed doses of morphine because the nurse was asleep.
Evidence before the tribunal showed that during her shift on the night of March 21 to 22, an AIN switched on the light in the nurses’ station to wake her. Moments later, however, Okembunachi reportedly turned the light back off and returned to sleep.
The tribunal also heard that on March 15, Okembunachi instructed an AIN to administer Panadol to a male resident suffering from foot pain, despite the assistant not being authorised to give medication.
The assistant reportedly questioned the instruction, asking: ‘Are you sure? We are not allowed to provide medication directly.’
According to the tribunal, Okembunachi responded: ‘It’s okay sister, just give it to him.’
Concerns about her conduct were raised by two nurses on March 27. The following day, Okembunachi received an email informing her that she had been suspended and inviting her to attend a meeting. About 20 minutes later, she submitted her resignation and declined to attend the meeting.
A complaint was later lodged with the Health Care Complaints Commission, which initiated the tribunal proceedings. Her nursing registration was suspended during the investigation.
The tribunal heard that Okembunachi, who was born in Nigeria, relocated to Australia in 2018. She completed a Bachelor of Nursing Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2021 and later enrolled in a graduate medicine programme at Western Sydney University (WSU).
While juggling her studies and work at HAC, she was also dealing with migraines and significant personal stress. During her medical degree, she took a leave of absence after failing a mid-year anatomy examination before returning to her studies in 2024.
The tribunal was told that earlier in the year, her younger sister required costly surgery for scoliosis, with the procedure costing their father about $60,000.
Explaining her circumstances, Okembunachi told the tribunal: ‘These events caused me significant stress and influenced my decision to cease agency work in favour of more permanent employment.’
She added: ‘In hindsight, I should have not applied for, or accepted, the position at Hardi.
‘I should have recognised that I had a lot of stressors going on in my life, family, health and school, and so working night shifts during the week was putting patients’ safety at risk.’
Okembunachi also accepted responsibility for her actions, telling the tribunal: ‘When I slept on night shift, I failed in supervising those staff members and the residents.’
She has not worked as a nurse since her suspension but continues to study medicine. The tribunal noted that she has been financially supported by her father and has also been receiving a Centrelink Student Allowance since February 2025.
During the hearing, Okembunachi expressed a desire to return to nursing and said that if permitted to practise again, she would avoid night shifts while studying.
However, the tribunal ruled that her registration should be cancelled, stating: ‘The acts of the practitioner had the potential to endanger the lives of patients under her care.’
The panel concluded: ‘In our view, any order short of deregistration would be an inadequate response to the seriousness of the practitioner’s misconduct.’
Despite this, the tribunal acknowledged that Okembunachi had been ‘clearly remorseful and contrite… and conspicuously honest in her evidence’.
She will be unable to apply for a review of the cancellation order for at least nine months.
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