An aged care nurse who attended a child bathe at a nursing house throughout a Covid lockdown has been suspended, telling a tribunal the error “will hang-out me for the remainder of my life”.
Employees on the Epping Gardens aged care held a shock child bathe in July 2020 for registered nurse Denis Baniqued and his spouse, who additionally labored on the facility.
There have been strict Covid restrictions in place on the time.
The daddy-to-be was unaware of the celebration earlier than he arrived and stayed for under 5 minutes however the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal discovered he did not disperse the celebration, take away unauthorised individuals from the power and report the child bathe to managers.
The tribunal was informed Baniqued and quite a few others who attended the child bathe examined constructive to Covid within the following days.
It additionally coincided with a lethal outbreak of Covid killing 38 residents, however a earlier investigation was unable to establish the place it started.
Baniqued mentioned he was crammed with “sympathy and regret” for failing to interrupt up the celebration.
“I’ve not as soon as forgotten this error that can hang-out me for the remainder of my life,” he wrote to the tribunal.
“We might all speculate how issues might have turned out, if solely the right factor was carried out.”
The tribunal, led by Anna Dea, acknowledged Baniqued’s regret however discovered his behaviour nonetheless amounted to skilled misconduct and suspended him for one month.
He should additionally undertake additional coaching on incident reporting and management.