The charge against non-practising enrolled nurse Rayleene Jeannette Park was laid by the Nursing Council.
After a short deliberation, tribunal chairman David Carden said the six particulars of the charge, which were all admitted, constituted professional misconduct, both together, and separately.
Five particulars related to accessing a patient's records, and one to sending a text message.
Ms Park lived in Dunedin at the time, but has since moved to Temuka, and does not work in the health sector.
Because of her financial situation, she was not fined, and because she received legal aid, no order for costs was made.
The tribunal would make an order for censure, and would suspend her registration for three months.
The suspension would take effect from the date of the written decision, which would be issued in due course. Ms Park has not worked as a nurse for several years.
The summary said Ms Park met women's health outpatients charge nurse manager Alison Gemmell on March 15, 2011, and told her that about January 27, 2011, she accidentally entered the wrong date into the computer, which brought up a list for the following day, a Friday termination of pregnancy list.
It was accepted this initial access was accidental.
Ms Park worked in women's health, and her role was to book patients for operations and co-ordinate the administration for the colposcopy service.
The list contained the planned termination of the pregnancy of a woman she knew through a third party.
Ms Park asked the third party about the pregnancy.
The person said they would inform Ms Park's manager of the privacy breach, and Ms Park subsequently advised Ms Gemmell about the incident, resulting in a disciplinary meeting.
Ms Park did not disclose she had also accessed the patient's electronic file five times. This was revealed through a check of the electronic record.
Ms Park's counsel, Ben Nevell, of Dunedin, told the tribunal Ms Park accepted what she did was wrong.
She had shown genuine and immediate remorse. She was not in a nursing role at the time.
In response, professional conduct committee counsel Matthew McClelland, of Wellington, said a nurse had a duty not to bring the profession into disrepute, whether or not they had a current practising certificate.
To protect the patient's identity, details about the third party were suppressed. Any return to nursing would be conditional on Ms Park's retraining, including an ethics and confidentiality course.
Asked to comment, SDHB patient services director Lexie O'Shea said in a statement yesterday access to patient records was permitted only if staff were involved in the care of the patient, or had specific consent for access.
''Southern DHB takes patient privacy very seriously and, as occurred in this case, takes clear action if any staff member is suspected of having breached a patient's privacy.''
Levels of access to information varied. All access could be audited through log-in identification, she said.
Staff were regularly reminded of the importance of respecting patient privacy, Mrs O'Shea said.
