A former emergency department nurse who stole strong painkillers and injected patients with saline instead has been banned from reapplying for registration.
The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) made the determination following a disciplinary referral by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.
The tribunal also ordered that the nurse's identity be suppressed due to documented risks to his mental health.
The tribunal heard that between April 24 and May 5, 2023, the nurse routinely accessed the emergency department's drug room to steal prescribed doses of morphine sulphate and fentanyl.
On five separate occasions involving four patients, the nurse drew up water or saline solution into syringes meant for treatment, replacing the prescribed pain-relieving medications.
He then falsely logged in the hospital's drug registers that the proper dosages had been administered as prescribed.
TASCAT senior member Lucinda Jack noted the severe impact of these actions on patients in need of immediate clinical care.
"The conduct of the respondent ... not only deprived several patients of the benefit of prescribed pain-relieving medication, but falsely recorded that those medications had, in fact, been administered," she said.
"The same conduct also amounted to serious breaches of trust in the respondent, in his role as a registered nurse working in a high-pressure public hospital setting, and involved inherently dangerous substances."
The Department of Health suspended the nurse from employment on May 17, 2023.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board took immediate action to suspend his professional registration on June 28, 2023, following an investigation.
During initial proceedings, the nurse submitted false and misleading claims to the board, asserting that a colleague had administered the medication on one occasion and stating that he had "never put the public health at risk".
Ms Jack stressed that deceiving regulators attacks the core of healthcare oversight.
"The respondent's conduct ... displayed a lack of honesty and integrity that would also be likely to undermine the public's trust and confidence in the profession, but that conduct also undermines the integrity of the regulatory system relating to health practitioners," she said.
The nurse eventually admitted to all allegations, conceding that his actions amounted to professional misconduct.
His registration subsequently lapsed in June 2024, and he formally resigned from the hospital in May 2025.
Ms Jack ordered that the former nurse be formally reprimanded, disqualified from applying for registration, and barred from applying for a tribunal reinstatement order for six months.
"There is a clear need for general deterrence," she said.
"It is appropriate to signal to practitioners and the public that behaviour of this nature will be viewed seriously.
It is conduct that is not only a breach of professional obligations, but also a breach of the trust that is placed in nurses by their employers, patients and the public."