An experienced nurse who was suspended from practising in New Zealand and then lied about it in three separate job applications in Australia has told a tribunal she simply made a mistake.

Maryam Rashidi, who had worked as a nurse for 14 years, was suspended in 2018 for failing to pass a competency assessment which tests a nurse’s understanding of various aspects of patient care.

The same year she applied for a nursing role in Australia and answered “No” when asked if she had been suspended and if her practising certificate was subject to any conditions overseas.

She then applied for another non-practising role in Australia in 2020 and in 2021 and lied again about her New Zealand suspension in both applications.

Today Rashidi appeared before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal where she was found guilty of professional misconduct.

“It was not my intention to mislead…it was my misunderstanding of the questions they asked me,” Rashidi told the tribunal.

“I made a mistake on my application.”

However, the Professional Conduct Committee prosecuting Rashidi on behalf of the Nursing Council of New Zealand said that she would have been well aware of her obligation to disclose the fact she’d been suspended and the questions could not have been misconstrued.

“She was undeniably aware that disclosing her conditions would have an effect on her applications,” counsel for the committee, Charlotte Taylor, told the tribunal in her submissions this morning.

“Given the length of time she’s been involved with the competency process she would have been well aware of what was required of her at each application.”

Taylor said that Rashidi attempted to deliberately deceive the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and doing so could have potentially put the public at risk.

The first job would have seen her working as a practising nurse when she was unable to pass the competency requirements to work as one in New Zealand, Taylor said.

Taylor said Rashidi was clearly happy to attempt to rejoin the profession without addressing the areas where she was lacking professionally and saw no issues with deceiving AHPRA.

“She was aware this would affect her chances of obtaining registration and employment with AHPRA,” Taylor said.

Taylor went on to say that it was “simply not plausible” that Rashidi misunderstood the questions on the job application and that if she really had misunderstood them then that also spoke to her lack of competency as a nurse.

“She has consistently failed to take accountability for her conduct,” Taylor said.

“She clearly cannot be relied on to be honest.”

Rashidi said she had never received any negative feedback from her employers or patients.

She said she was aware of the transtasman accords with Australia and assumed that AHPRA was already aware of her suspension in New Zealand.

“I did not harm anyone but myself to make this mistake,” Rashidi told the tribunal and said she wanted to continue working as a nurse.

The tribunal found Rashidi guilty of professional misconduct this morning and issued a censure.

It also made an order that if Rashidi was to return to nursing she must undertake an ethics course, must disclose the tribunal’s decision to any prospective employer and get the Nursing Council’s approval before undertaking any employment in the field of medicine.

Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.