A Melbourne nurse who signed up to support hotel quarantine nearly walked out on day one because of a lack of consistent procedures.

Despite concerns he couldn't keep patients safe, Michael Tait said he enjoyed the camaraderie and the challenge.

"It seemed like an impossible task, and to do that with my colleagues was an honour," he told magistrate Simon Zebrowsi on Wednesday.

Victoria's Department of Health, which ran the hotel quarantine program for returned travellers between March and July 2020 has been charged by WorkSafe with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

A five-week hearing is underway to determine if there's sufficient evidence for the department to face trial.

Mr Tait described rapidly changing policies during his shifts at multiple hotels between late March and late April 2020 - sometimes from hour to hour.

At one point he was told the policy was that if a COVID-19 positive person had been symptom-free for three days they were free to go, regardless of where they were at in their 14 days' quarantine, he said.

Mr Tait said it could have been a rumour, but policies changed hour to hour so he couldn't be sure.

Sometimes the policy depended on who was on shift.

Each team leader seemed to have a different opinion on how to run things, he said adding while there were many examples the most incredulous stood out.

"They didn't want us to give Panadol - they wanted us to get a doctor to write a script for Panadol, and other crazy ideas like that," he said.

"You could just go and ask the next team leader and they'd say 'of course give Panadol'."

His biggest issue was staffing numbers. At the Crown Metropol, where he spent most of his shifts, there were five or six nurses working out of a hotel room.

In the beginning they didn't wear masks in the room, they had two landline phones between them and they shared a single sink.

"You can't take care of that many people with just those few nurses," he said.

When asked what couldn't be done, he replied "make sure they're safe".

The hearing is continuing.