PoO is intrigued by the case of the nurse who says he is extremely sorry for stealing a disabled patient’s debit card to fund his gambling proclivities.
NewstalkZB reports
He stole the debit card four times in October 2024 and made nine withdrawals, pocketing more than $4000 in cash for the pokies and Lotto tickets.
Hmm. Bleeding his patient, you might say, but not to improve his wellbeing because routine medical bloodletting has long been abandoned and discredited.
What sort of disciplining does this incur?
The NewstalkZB report does not mention police action or a court hearing, but readers are told:
Now the nurse from Wellington, who has interim name suppression, has been suspended for 15 months by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
More detail is provided:
According to the charge document, while employed at a residential care facility, the nurse misappropriated funds from a vulnerable patient by stealing his debit card and withdrawing cash.
The name and location of the facility are suppressed.
The first incident occurred on October 1, 2024, when the nurse made five withdrawals, totalling $1015.
This was followed by two withdrawals totalling $1603 on October 17, a withdrawal on October 30 totalling $1003 and another of the same amount on October 31.
He told colleagues who found out about his misconduct not to disclose to their employer what he was doing.
At the hearing, the nurse told the tribunal he was “extremely sorry” about the “huge mistake” he had made.
“I highly hope I’ll be able to get a chance to return to nursing,” he told the tribunal.
He hoped to return to nursing work on the floor of an aged care setting, not only because that’s where he specialised but because he wanted to make a “positive change” in aged care.
“I believe I can still make a positive change in a lot of old people,” he said.
The nurse’s clinical psychologist told the tribunal he struggled with a gambling addiction and, at the time of the offending, his gambling was getting “out of control”..
“It was seen as a solution to his problems,” she said.
But the tribunal further heard that the nurse was not fully honest with the psychologist about his level of addiction and offending.
Nevertheless, she was confident the practitioner had a good chance of being rehabilitated.
As well as undergoing counselling and rehabilitation to get his addiction under control, he had cancelled his lotto account and no longer goes to venues that have pokie machines.
The counsel for the Professional Conduct Committee sought cancellation of his practising certificate as an appropriate penalty (“In our submission this practitioner does pose a significant risk”) whereas the nurse’s lawyer requested censure, conditions on his practising certificate and supervision as a suitable penalty (because the nurse was someone making “every effort to reform”).
The tribunal decided a suspension of 15 months would be sufficient, as well as a censure and the imposition of conditions to be met before the nurse returns to nursing.
The nurse was ordered to undertake treatment for gambling, maintain his exclusion from gambling venues and complete a course on nursing ethics before his period of suspension ends.
Following the suspension, the nurse needed to undertake 24 months of professional supervision, continue treatment for gambling and for three years he must not hold any management or financial role in the workplace.
He must disclose the tribunal’s decision to any employer or prospective employers.
He was ordered to pay 20% of costs.
And when he undertakes his course in nursing ethics, PoO wonders, what will he learn about stealing from patients?
Nursing ethics courses provide guidance on “financial transactions” , rather than a simple “don’t steal” rule.
According to information provided by Co-pilot:
Ethics classes outline the strict regulatory frameworks governing the profession, such as the Nursing Council of New Zealand Code of Conduct or local equivalent boards. Students learn that stealing results in: [1, 2, 3]
Hmm. Bleeding his patient, you might say, but not to improve his wellbeing because routine medical bloodletting has long been abandoned and discredited.
What sort of disciplining does this incur?
The NewstalkZB report does not mention police action or a court hearing, but readers are told:
Now the nurse from Wellington, who has interim name suppression, has been suspended for 15 months by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
More detail is provided:
According to the charge document, while employed at a residential care facility, the nurse misappropriated funds from a vulnerable patient by stealing his debit card and withdrawing cash.
The name and location of the facility are suppressed.
The first incident occurred on October 1, 2024, when the nurse made five withdrawals, totalling $1015.
This was followed by two withdrawals totalling $1603 on October 17, a withdrawal on October 30 totalling $1003 and another of the same amount on October 31.
He told colleagues who found out about his misconduct not to disclose to their employer what he was doing.
At the hearing, the nurse told the tribunal he was “extremely sorry” about the “huge mistake” he had made.
“I highly hope I’ll be able to get a chance to return to nursing,” he told the tribunal.
He hoped to return to nursing work on the floor of an aged care setting, not only because that’s where he specialised but because he wanted to make a “positive change” in aged care.
“I believe I can still make a positive change in a lot of old people,” he said.
The nurse’s clinical psychologist told the tribunal he struggled with a gambling addiction and, at the time of the offending, his gambling was getting “out of control”..
“It was seen as a solution to his problems,” she said.
But the tribunal further heard that the nurse was not fully honest with the psychologist about his level of addiction and offending.
Nevertheless, she was confident the practitioner had a good chance of being rehabilitated.
As well as undergoing counselling and rehabilitation to get his addiction under control, he had cancelled his lotto account and no longer goes to venues that have pokie machines.
The counsel for the Professional Conduct Committee sought cancellation of his practising certificate as an appropriate penalty (“In our submission this practitioner does pose a significant risk”) whereas the nurse’s lawyer requested censure, conditions on his practising certificate and supervision as a suitable penalty (because the nurse was someone making “every effort to reform”).
The tribunal decided a suspension of 15 months would be sufficient, as well as a censure and the imposition of conditions to be met before the nurse returns to nursing.
The nurse was ordered to undertake treatment for gambling, maintain his exclusion from gambling venues and complete a course on nursing ethics before his period of suspension ends.
Following the suspension, the nurse needed to undertake 24 months of professional supervision, continue treatment for gambling and for three years he must not hold any management or financial role in the workplace.
He must disclose the tribunal’s decision to any employer or prospective employers.
He was ordered to pay 20% of costs.
And when he undertakes his course in nursing ethics, PoO wonders, what will he learn about stealing from patients?
Nursing ethics courses provide guidance on “financial transactions” , rather than a simple “don’t steal” rule.
According to information provided by Co-pilot:
Ethics classes outline the strict regulatory frameworks governing the profession, such as the Nursing Council of New Zealand Code of Conduct or local equivalent boards. Students learn that stealing results in: [1, 2, 3]
- Immediate termination of employment.
- Investigation by professional conduct committees.
- Permanent revocation of their nursing license.
- Criminal prosecution and jail time. [1, 2]
The Nursing Council of New Zealand aligns its regulatory frameworks and professional standards with the foundational principles established through the Waitangi Tribunal’s Wai 2575 inquiry and health sector guidelines.
Nursing education and professional standards include learning about the Treaty, cultural safety, and Māori health. This is integrated into nursing ethics, professional practice, cultural safety, and competency requirements.
Registered nurses are expected, as part of their professional competence, to uphold and enact “Treaty principles”‘
Those are the “principles” fabricated in recent years by judges, scholars and what-have-you who profess to be able to tell us what the signatories intended back in 1840.
Is a disregard for Treaty principles more heinous than tapping into a patient’s savings?
The case of Cath Simpson is instructive.
She faced professional misconduct charges brought by the Nursing Council over personal social media posts on X (formerly Twitter).
The complaints accused her of making offensive comments regarding biological sex, Covid-19 policies, and expressing strong opposition to the embedding of Treaty of Waitangi principles across the healthcare system.
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal stopped short of deregistering her a few weeks ago, issuing a two-month suspension and putting conditions on her practice.
That’s a much shorter suspension period than was imposed on the nurse who stole from a patient.
But Health New Zealand had other ideas: it fired Cath Simpson for serious misconduct, citing potential “reputational risk”.
It remains to be seen whether the nurse who stole from a patient is similarly shunned.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE.
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