A nurse has been reprimanded after trying to smuggle a bottle of cannabis oil she found in her new home into hospital for a patient with shark bite wounds.

She avoided a suspension after a tribunal attributed her “completely out-of-character” actions to pandemic-related stress and burnout, plus concern for her patient, who had used recreational cannabis long-term.

At the time she was working on the Sunshine Coast University Hospital orthopaedic ward while juggling a second role as clinical nurse consultant of vascular surgery.

The patient in question was flown in from NSW in October 2021 after a shark attacked him, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard.