Nurse struck off for forgery

Rosylin Singh denied most charges. Photo / Doug Sherring

Questions raised about her honesty and dress style.

A nurse whose short skirts and long fingernails raised eyebrows at the school where she worked has been struck off for forging her practising certificate.

In a decision released on Friday, the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal expressed concern that Rosylin Radha Singh had twice appeared before it for dishonesty.

Singh, 40, first came before the tribunal in March 2011 after she forged a prescription for weight-loss drug Reductil, which she pretended was for an elderly resident at the rest home where she worked. The tribunal heard she was "obsessive about her body image and weight", although she vehemently denied this.

She claimed other staff at the rest home had replaced her prescription for anti-anxiety medication with the elderly woman's prescription.

The tribunal said her explanation was "fanciful" and found her guilty of professional misconduct, suspending her from working as a nurse.

However, in July 2011 she applied for a job as a school nurse, but didn't disclose her suspension and her qualifications were never checked.

Concerns were raised at the school about her standard of dress. "She wore many short skirts and had long fingernails. [The school] felt that with many adolescent males at [the school] this was not appropriate," the tribunal's decision said. Singh later resigned.

In November 2011, Singh completed an application for ACC Health Provider Registration, on which, the tribunal said, she altered her annual practising certificate expiry date from 2011 to 2012. It was also revealed that Singh used a fake referee in her job application, which Singh also denied. The tribunal cancelled her registration, censured her and ordered her to pay costs of $7000.

"There appears to be a continuing concern about Ms Singh's honesty. Honesty is a vitally important part of being a registered health professional for the protection of the public safety and maintenance of standards," it said.

At her West Auckland home yesterday, Singh said she lied on her application to the school because she was desperate for work.

She denied having ever forged the Reductil prescription. "Somebody swapped them because they didn't want me to work there, because they didn't like me."

As for her appearance while working at the school, she said this was also untrue.

"It never came up at the school. They never approached me about anything like that."