A nurse has been banned over an intimate relationship with a vulnerable mental health patient, after taking him to an escape room, exchanging thousands of calls and texts and being seen kissing him.<\/p>\n
Dilnoor Kang, who was a nurse at Wagga Wagga\u2019s mental health unit in regional NSW, was on Friday found guilty of professional misconduct over the years-long relationship and for lying to various health authorities about it.<\/p>\n
Kang was part of the young patient\u2019s care team when he was admitted for suicidal and homicidal ideation in early 2021 and psychosis in 2022, according to a NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal judgment.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n In mid-2021, Kang booked the pair a trip to The Riddle Room escape rooms in Canberra and they were seen kissing and hugging at her house or in her car throughout 2022.<\/p>\n Over the course of one year, she exchanged up to 5000 messages and calls with him.<\/p>\n While he was being treated for acute psychosis in 2022, Kang unexpectedly visited him in hospital while she was off-shift and became emotional while speaking with him.<\/p>\n The patient, known only as Patient A, told another nurse he felt Kang was \u201cplaying with his head\u201d.<\/p>\n In January 2024, police were called after the patient slapped Kang across the face during an argument at her house and they both told officers they were in a relationship.<\/p>\n The Murrumbidgee Local Health District launched an investigation into Kang and terminated her employment in September 2023.<\/p>\n She voluntarily surrendered her nursing registration in mid-2024.<\/p>\n The case was referred to the Health Care Complaints Commission, which urged the tribunal to find her guilty of professional misconduct and to formally cancel her registration.<\/p>\n During different stages of the case, Kang admitted the intimate relationship but then offered retractions, including to the allegations about kissing.<\/p>\n She repeatedly insisted the patient was a \u201cvery good friend\u201d.<\/p>\n Kang said she believed she was communicating with another man she met online when she exchanged thousands of texts and calls with the patient, claims the tribunal found to be \u201cimplausible\u201d.<\/p>\n The tribunal ruled Kang gave false or misleading evidence when she denied an intimate relationship to the local health district and when she told the nursing council she did not have the patient\u2019s mobile number.<\/p>\n While the tribunal was urged to find the relationship was sexual, it ruled that was unnecessary because the evidence gave a \u201cclear picture\u201d of inappropriate intimacy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are satisfied that the nature and gravity of the practitioner\u2019s professional misconduct was objectively serious,\u201d its judgment said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt occurred over several years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe risk of harm to a mental health patient in those circumstances is considerable.\u201d<\/p>\n Kang has been disqualified for two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nurse has been banned over an intimate relationship with a vulnerable mental health patient, after taking him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[428,102,1906,6623,61536,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-246883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-mentalhealth","12":"tag-nsw","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}