A 25-year-old nurse originally from Nigeria has had her registration permanently cancelled in Australia after a tribunal determined she repeatedly fell asleep during night shifts at a Sydney aged care home.
The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled on Tuesday that Chimzuruoke Okembunachi committed professional misconduct during her brief tenure at Hardi Aged Care (HAC) in Guildford, western Sydney, according to Daily Mail reports.
Ms Okembunachi commenced employment at the facility as a registered nurse in February 2024 but was suspended within a month and subsequently resigned.
The tribunal’s findings revealed that between March 13 and March 27, 2024, Okembunachi worked night shifts as the only registered nurse supervising approximately 100 elderly residents alongside three to four assistants-in-nursing (AINs).
Over six separate nights during this period, she fell asleep while on duty, neglecting her responsibilities. The tribunal heard that on three occasions, residents missed scheduled morphine doses because the nurse was asleep.
Evidence presented showed that during her March 21-22 shift, an AIN turned on lights in the nurses’ station to wake her, but Okembunachi switched them off and went back to sleep.
The tribunal also learned that on March 15, she directed an AIN to give Panadol to a resident experiencing foot pain, despite assistants lacking authorization to administer medication.
When the assistant expressed concern—”Are you sure? We are not allowed to provide medication directly”—Okembunachi reportedly replied: “It’s okay sister, just give it to him.”
Two nurses reported concerns about her conduct on March 27. The next day, she received a suspension notice and meeting invitation via email. Approximately 20 minutes later, she resigned and declined to attend.
A subsequent complaint to the Health Care Complaints Commission led to tribunal proceedings, with her registration suspended during the investigation.
The tribunal learned that Okembunachi moved to Australia from Nigeria in 2018, earned her Bachelor of Nursing Science from the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2021, and later enrolled in graduate medicine at Western Sydney University (WSU).
At the time of the incidents, she was managing her nursing job alongside medical studies while dealing with migraines and considerable personal pressures. She had taken leave from her medical programme after failing a mid-year anatomy exam before resuming studies in 2024.
The tribunal heard that her younger sister required scoliosis surgery earlier that year, costing their father approximately $60,000.
“These events caused me significant stress and influenced my decision to cease agency work in favour of more permanent employment,” Okembunachi explained to the tribunal.
She acknowledged her errors: “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.”
She added: “When I slept on night shift, I failed in supervising those staff members and the residents.”
Okembunachi has not practiced nursing since her suspension but continues her medical studies, supported financially by her father and a Centrelink Student Allowance she began receiving in February 2025.
During proceedings, she expressed hope to return to nursing and pledged to avoid night shifts while studying if given another opportunity.
However, the tribunal rejected this possibility, 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.”
Nevertheless, the tribunal acknowledged that Okembunachi appeared “clearly remorseful and contrite… and conspicuously honest in her evidence.”
She cannot apply for review of the cancellation for at least nine months.
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