Nurses Union tackles radio hoax

New South Wales Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA) letter to 2DayFM:

While I appreciate that your station may well consider this incident a successful coup in terms of its news and entertainment value, and quite aside from the fact that your own Code of Practice requires that an identifiable person should not be broadcast without their permission, I would like to draw your attention to the very serious professional consequences such a stunt would have had for a nurse or midwife in the Australian context.

As regulated health professionals, Australian nurses and midwives must comply with strict professional and legal obligations in terms of patient privacy. While the nature and extent of the nurse's culpability in this situation is not clear, in the NSW context she could potentially have to respond to three separate disciplinary processes, including those conducted by her employer and other inquiries conducted by the regulating authority and the Health Care Complaints Commission.

In our role as industrial and professional representatives for NSW nurses and midwives, we deal with these processes everyday and I can assure you that they are stressful and deeply traumatic experiences for many nurses and midwives, regardless of the level of wrongdoing or the nature of the precipitating incident.

In the future I urge you to consider the personal toll such a prank could exact from a professional caregiver such as one of my members. Also, I hope I will be able to reassure my members that your station has undertaken to never again attempt to jeopardise their professional standing by perpetrating such a deception against another hardworking nurse or midwife.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association has enjoyed a very productive relationship with your company and in particular your news rooms, a large number of members also listen to your broadcasts and we trust that we will continue these positive relationships.