A former Tasmanian nurse has had her registration cancelled after a tribunal found she falsely claimed qualifications when applying for paramedic and senior nursing jobs.
In a decision handed down last week, the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) found Lauren Elizabeth Butler engaged in professional misconduct between 2020 and 2023.
Butler worked as a registered nurse in the emergency department at the Launceston General Hospital and volunteered with Ambulance Tasmania.
The tribunal found she applied for graduate paramedic roles with Ambulance Tasmania three times between December 2020 and March 2023.
In each application, she claimed to hold a paramedicine qualification from Charles Sturt University and to be registered or seeking registration as a paramedic.
The tribunal found she had not completed the course and had never held general registration as a paramedic.
It found she submitted false registration receipt numbers, an altered invoice from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and a falsified university transcript to support her applications.
In 2023, she also claimed to hold a postgraduate critical care nursing qualification she did not have when applying for two senior nursing roles at the hospital.
During a Department of Health investigation, Butler claimed a transcript had come from a “malware email” and that the errors were “honest mistakes”. She later gave AHPRA similar explanations.
“I would not have applied for the...
A former Tasmanian nurse has had her registration cancelled after a tribunal found she falsely claimed qualifications when applying for paramedic and senior nursing jobs. In a decision handed down...