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25 Jul 2019
A tribunal has cancelled a nurse’s registration for professional misconduct concerning criminal convictions and practising while intoxicated.
On 22 March 2019, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (tribunal) reprimanded Mr Andrew Mura and cancelled his registration, disqualifying him from reapplying for registration for two years. In June 2014, a hospital notified the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) that Mr Mura had been intoxicated while rostered on as a registered nurse. Later that month, the NMBA received further notifications including from police that Mr Mura had been charged with various offences relating to thefts of drugs. The NMBA took immediate action to suspend Mr Mura’s registration on 17 June 2014. Following suspension of his registration, Mr Mura was charged with further criminal offences. After all criminal matters were finalised, on 31 August 2017 the NMBA referred Mr Mura to the tribunal for professional misconduct concerning his conviction on 26 criminal charges and the allegation that Mr Mura had practised nursing in an unsafe and/or incompetent manner by working or presenting for work in a state of intoxication. On 22 March 2019, the tribunal found both allegations of professional misconduct proven and explained that the circumstances of the offences, the period of time over which they were committed, their nature, number and gravity and the repeated breach of court orders were inconsistent with Mr Mura being a fit and proper person to hold registration. The tribunal reprimanded Mr Mura, cancelled his registration and disqualified him from reapplying for two years at which time the NMBA’s Recency of practice registration standard and Re-entry to practice policy will apply. The tribunal’s decision is published on the Austlii website.