Nurse’s registration cancelled after racist comments online

NEW PLYMOUTH: A New Plymouth nurse who made a public post on social media saying all Maori nurses do is have meetings all day and ‘‘sit on their fat arses’’ has had her registration cancelled for the next two years.

The New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal considered two charges against the conduct of Deborah Kathryn Hugill, commonly known as Debbie Newport, and ruled that several of her posts to the New Zealand Nurses Organisation Facebook page in May last year were highly offensive, racist and damaged the mana of Maori nurses and patients in Taranaki.

The Facebook page is public, and anyone from the public can access it.

Some of Ms Hugill’s posts to the page include ‘‘Maori are by far the laziest and cunning underhanded I have worked with’’ and ‘‘Maori predominantly get more hand outs and freebies in Nursing Education’’.

These comments were made in response to an online news article posted to the page.

A number of experienced nurses presented evidence to the tribunal, describing the posts as racist, bigoted and directed at Maori.

One nurse said the posts targeted Ms Hugill’s previous employers, colleagues and patients in a way that breached confidentiality and showed a lack of cultural respect.

In her own evidence, Ms Hugill tried to justify her actions.

She said the news article was thoughtprovoking and raised memories for her.

She also said the comments posted were ‘‘true’’ as they were taken from her own experiences and things she had witnessed during her career as a registered nurse.

She denied being racist or making racist comments.

However, under crossexamination, she accepted that some of her comments were ‘‘awful and atrocious’’.

It is not the first time she has been stood down for making offensive posts online.

In 2018, she had her practising certificate suspended for making similar remarks, but continued to work at two agedcare facilities.

At the time, she failed to undertake the cultural competence training required of her.

The tribunal said the failure to observe a suspension order was an extremely serious matter and fell well below the standards expected from a registered nurse.

Ms Hugill was censured and ordered to pay 15% of the total costs of both the Professional Conduct Committee and the tribunal.

The tribunal also imposed conditions that must be satisfied before she can reapply for registration. — RNZ