RismadarVoice Reporters
January 24, 2026
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.
The New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled that Chimzuruoke Okembunachi, 25, engaged in professional misconduct, ordering the cancellation of her nursing registration and the removal of her name from the professional register.
Okembunachi commenced employment as a registered nurse at Hardi Aged Care (HAC) in Guildford, western Sydney, in February 2024, but was suspended barely a month later and subsequently resigned.
In a decision delivered, the tribunal found that between March 13 and March 27, 2024, Okembunachi was rostered for night shifts during which she was the sole registered nurse supervising between three and four assistants-in-nursing (AINs) and approximately 100 elderly residents.
The panel found that on six separate occasions, she failed to properly discharge her duties after falling asleep while on duty.
On three of those nights, residents missed prescribed doses of morphine because the nurse was asleep.
Evidence before the tribunal showed that during the night shift of March 21–22, an AIN switched on the light at the nurses’ station in an attempt to wake her.
Moments later, Okembunachi reportedly turned the light off and returned to sleep.
The tribunal also heard that on March 15, she instructed an AIN to administer Panadol to a male resident suffering from foot pain, despite the assistant lacking authorisation to dispense medication.
According to evidence, when the AIN queried the instruction, saying, “We are not allowed to provide medication directly,” Okembunachi replied, “It’s okay sister, just give it to him.”
Concerns over her conduct were formally raised by two nurses on March 27.
The following day, Okembunachi received an email notifying her of her suspension and inviting her to attend a meeting. About 20 minutes later, she submitted her resignation and declined to attend the meeting.
A complaint was subsequently lodged with the Health Care Complaints Commission, leading to the tribunal proceedings.
Her registration was suspended during the investigation.
The tribunal heard that Okembunachi, who was born in Nigeria, moved to Australia in 2018, obtained a Bachelor of Nursing Science from the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2021, and later enrolled in a graduate medicine programme at Western Sydney University.
While working at HAC, she was also juggling her medical studies, recurring migraines and significant personal stress.
She took a leave of absence from her medical degree after failing a mid-year anatomy examination, before returning to her studies in 2024.
The tribunal was also told that earlier in the year, her younger sister required costly scoliosis surgery, with the procedure costing their father about $60,000.
Explaining her circumstances, Okembunachi told the tribunal that the cumulative pressures influenced her employment decisions.
“These events caused me significant stress and influenced my decision to cease agency work in favour of more permanent employment,” she said.
She admitted that accepting the night-shift role was a mistake.
“In hindsight, I should not have 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 that working night shifts was putting patients’ safety at risk.”
Okembunachi accepted responsibility for her conduct, 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 received Centrelink Student Allowance since February 2025.
Although she expressed a desire to return to nursing, said she would avoid night shifts if permitted to practise again, the tribunal ruled that deregistration was necessary.
“The acts of the practitioner had the potential to endanger the lives of patients under her care,” the panel said, adding that “any order short of deregistration would be an inadequate response to the seriousness of the misconduct.”
However, the tribunal acknowledged that Okembunachi had been “clearly remorseful and contrite” and “conspicuously honest” in her evidence.
She will be ineligible to apply for a review of the cancellation order for at least nine months.
