An aged care nurse who attended a baby shower at a nursing home during a COVID-19 lockdown has been suspended, telling a tribunal the mistake "will haunt me for the rest of my life".
Staff at the Epping Aged Care held a surprise baby shower in July 2020 for registered nurse Denis Baniqued and his wife who also worked at the facility as a carer.
There were strict COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time.
The father-to-be was unaware of the party before he arrived and stayed for only five minutes but the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found he failed to disperse the party, remove unauthorised persons from the facility and report the baby shower to managers.
The tribunal was told Mr Baniqued and numerous others who attended the baby shower tested positive to COVID-19 in the following days.
It also coincided with a deadly outbreak of COVID-19 killing 38 residents, but a previous investigation was unable to identify where it began.
Mr Baniqued said he was filled with "sympathy and remorse" for failing to break up the party.
"I have not once have forgotten this mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life," he wrote to the tribunal.
"We could all speculate how things may have turned out, if only the correct thing was done."
The tribunal, led by Anna Dea, acknowledged Mr Baniqued's remorse but found his behaviour still amounted to professional misconduct and suspended him for one month.
He must also undertake further training on incident reporting and leadership.
