Nurse's bid to get back job fails

A Northland nurse has lost her bid to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to get her job back after she failed to have an emergency crash kit on site while giving school students HPV vaccines.

Natalie Lewers was a senior public health nurse employed by the Northland District Health Board (NDHB) to carry out immunisation programmes for school students in the Whangarei and Kaipara area.

The ERA was told that on August 24, 2010 a team of nurses, led by Ms Lewers, were administrating HPV vaccines - a vaccine which prevents infection associated with cervical cancer and genital warts - at a Whangarei high school.

When they set the gear up at the school it was discovered a crash kit, containing emergency equipment for the response to any anaphylactic reaction to the vaccine, was not there.

While a nurse left to get the kit, Ms Lewers decided to carry on administering the vaccines without the crash kit on site.

Ms Lewers said she assessed the level of risk to be very, very low.

However, the NDHB said this was a serious breach of safety and Ms Lewer was suspended from her job on pay pending an investigation, before she was later dismissed.

Ms Lewers complained to the ERA and said the NDHB first suspended then dismissed her unjustifiably.

ERA member Rosemary Monaghan said Ms Lewers' suspension was unjustified because her continued presence in the workplace was not detrimental to the investigation, nor was her continued presence a risk to the health and safety of others.

But her dismissal was justified.

"Commencing vaccinations without a crash kit was acknowledged to be a very serious matter and not in accordance with fundamental and very well-known requirements."

The NDHB was ordered to pay Ms Lewers $3000 compensation for the injury to her feelings caused by her unjustified suspension.

 

 

 

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