A nurse who tried to deflect blame after bruising her step-daughter with a wooden spoon has had her registration cancelled for at least a year.
The 29-year-old, who cannot be legally named, had been employed as an enrolled nurse for three years in regional NSW at the time of the assault.
She and her partner smacked their step-daughter multiple times with a wooden spoon in September 2021.
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Over four years later, she still did not accept responsibility for her actions, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found when cancelling her registration on Monday.
“Our observation is that she has limited insight as to how the circumstances of her offence impact on her trustworthiness in the profession of nursing,” the tribunal wrote.
The six-year-old presented to hospital two days after the assault, the girl’s biological mother having spotted bruising on her upper thigh, hip and buttocks.
NSW Police and child protection services were notified.
The nurse initially pleaded not guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company of others.
She was found guilty of this latter charge at a Local Court hearing and again on appeal.
In March 2023, she was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order and 170 hours of community service work.
On Monday, the tribunal said the woman had tried to suggest the child had been coached by her biological mother to make the assault allegation.
Found unfit to remain working as a nurse, she cannot seek reinstatement for 12 months.
“Nurses have a valuable role to play in being alert to suspected domestic violence within their community, rather than perpetrating it,” NCAT wrote.
At a hearing in October, the Health Care Complaints Commission said the woman could be biased against victims of domestic violence she cared for because of her own acts of family violence.
The nurse argued that the offence was not gratuitous or deliberate but rather an isolated act of “excessive punishment”.
She told the tribunal that she was working to manage her moods by writing a journal, seeing her psychologist, medicating, meditating and reading daily Bible verses.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
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