Aged Care Insite Issue 92 | December 2015 - January 2016 | Page 30

workforce

CVs aren’t optional
reading
Managers who don’t undertake
proper due diligence when hiring
staff may face problems whenever
employees commit crimes.
By Scott Trueman

M

anagers employ staff regularly.
How they do this is, to a
large degree, within their
employers’ discretion. If due diligence is
not undertaken in the process of checking
whether a potential employee is suitable
and/or has an adverse history, it may leave
the employer open to liability for actions
of the staff member.
The recent NSW Coroner’s report into
the tragedy at Quakers Hill Nursing Home
is enlightening. Whilst the report discusses
the importance of pre-employment
screening in providing a safe environment
for nursing home residents, it is applicable

30 agedcareinsite.com.au

to other facilities, such as hospitals, as well.
The coroner investigated the deaths of
14 residents at Quakers Hill as a result of
a fire deliberately set by RN Roger Dean –
an employee at the facility – in a botched
attempt to conceal his theft of Schedule
8 drugs. The coroner found that Quakers
Hill management had not undertaken
adequate pre-employment screening in
relation to Dean and stated that employers
may be exposed to legal liability if they fail
unreasonably to carry out a comprehensive
check on potential employees.
Dean was first registered as a nurse in
December 1996. He worked at a hospital

and community health service (HCHS)
in mental health and drug and alcohol
rehabilitation from 2002 until 2007. He
resigned following an investigation into his
behaviour in the workplace. Dean worked
at another hospital (H1) from 2005. In June
of 2011, he was found at work under the
influence of drugs. He informed the director
of nursing and nurse unit manager during
a follow up interview that he suffered from
bipolar disorder and that he had recently
changed his medication. He said this was
why he was adversely affected on the day,
and he had since readjusted his medication.
In support, Dean provided a GP letter
confirming he suffered from a bipolar
disorder with overt signs of depression,
and that he was stable and fit to resume his
duties as an RN. However, in September of
2011, Dean resigned from H1, having been
moved from night duty to days to enable
proper supervision and to ensure patient
safety was not compromised.
Later in 2011, Dean applied for
employment at Quakers Hill and was
informed there was a registered nurse
night duty position available. He provided
a copy of his CV but had outdated written
references; the most recent nursing one
was 11 years old. The references were also
inappropriate. They included his partner
from a job at a cheesecake shop and
someone from a time when he worked for
three months at another hospital (H2) in
1997. This was misleading, as it deliberately
omitted his employment at HCHS, and his
most recent nursing experience, at H1. The
only work disclosed from 2007 onward was
at the cheesecake shop.
Dean commenced employment as a
permanent part-time RN at Quakers H