Aged care nurse Patricia Bergin suspended after breaching COVID-19 rules in Collie

An aged care nurse who worked at a Western Australian nursing home when she instead should have been self-isolating has been banned from practising for nearly a year.

Patricia Bergin worked at Collie's Valley View Aged Care Centre on July 24, 2020, despite being unwell and awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test. 

The State Administrative Tribunal found Ms Bergin engaged in professional misconduct and ordered her nursing registration be suspended for 11 months, from April 14. 

She also received a six-month jail sentence, suspended for eight months, last year.

The tribunal said Ms Bergin, who had been working as an enrolled nurse for only two months, had expressed remorse. 

The suspension comes after former head of the national COVID-19 task force Nev Power, received an eight-month suspended sentence for flying into WA in a helicopter, in breach of the state's strict COVID-19 border laws. 

Endangering health and safety of residents

The tribunal said Ms Bergin told her employer on July 21, 2020 that she had cold-like symptoms and could not go to work that night. 

The Valley View centre told her to get a COVID-19 test and not come to work until she got a negative result. 

The breach happened in the coal mining town of Collie, in WA's south west.(ABC News: Anthony Pancia)

Despite feeling unwell, Ms Bergin still went to work at the aged care facility overnight on July 24 and looked after more than 60 patients. 

The State Administrative Tribunal said, in attending the aged care centre, Ms Bergin had been in breach of policies and directions.

It said her actions were “endangering, or potentially endangering the health and safety of residents” and demonstrated “a disregard for the principles of public health and community safety during the COVID-19 pandemic”. 

She did not get her test results until July 26. 

Nurse pleads guilty 

The tribunal noted WA police had charged Ms Bergin with failing to comply with quarantine directions, and she received a six-month prison term, suspended for eight months. 

She also lost her job at the Valley View aged care centre about two weeks after she breached its COVID-19 rules. 

The tribunal said it accepted that Ms Bergin had only been working as an enrolled nurse for two to three months, when the misconduct occurred, and she had shown remorse.

She had also taken responsibility for her actions by pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity and co-operating with the investigation. 

The tribunal was told Ms Bergin was still keen to be a nurse and was studying towards an undergraduate degree in registered nursing.