Twenty-five people have been charged in a Florida wire fraud scheme that created thousands of illegal licenses and employment shortcuts for aspiring nurses, according to the U.S. Department of Justice...“The bogus diplomas and transcripts qualified purchasers to sit for the national nursing board exam and, after passing it, to obtain licenses and jobs in various states as RNs and LPN/VNs,” USDOJ reported. “The overall scheme involved the distribution of more than 7,600 fake nursing diplomas issued by three South Florida-based nursing schools: Siena College in Broward County, Fla., Palm Beach School of Nursing in Palm Beach County, Fla., and Sacred Heart International Institute in Broward County.”Federal agents reported that the schools are now closed, with each defendant facing up to 20 years in prison. The USDOJ said that this type of crime “unfortunately continue[s] to spring up, especially” in South Florida...“What is disturbing about this investigation is that there are over 7,600 people around the country with fraudulent nursing credentials who are potentially in critical health care roles treating patients. Were it not for the diligence and hard work of the investigators on this case, the extent of this fraud may not have been discovered, “ Yarbrough added.
I hope they punish these people to the max. More information at The Hill.
There has been much made in recent decades about the AMA artificially throttling the supply of physicians in order to increase salaries. Does anyone know if this is the case in nursing as well?
ReplyDeleteLocal hospitals who focused of community care are being gobbled up by Private Equity raiders. In the push to maximize profit nurses get the shitty end of the stick every time. Overworked, underpaid, forced to deal with supply shortages.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
What confuses me about this story is that the fraud seems to have involved issuing fake educational credentials, not licenses. In order to get a license the bearer of the fake credentials would still have to sit for the nursing board exam, which is no piece of cake. Chances are someone without the education they pretend to have will fail the exam. If in fact fake licenses were not involved I suspect the chances of untrained nurses getting jobs is low.
ReplyDeleteThis does not lessen the maliciousness of the fraud. No doubt the suckers who bought these documents were assured, "With these you're guaranteed a job." They could be in for a rude awakening.These people knew they were buying phony credentials, so I can't work up much sympathy for them.
I read somewhere else that about half of them actually did pass the licensing exam. That's still ~3,500 essentially untrained nurses. I suspect many had maybe failed nursing school and thought buying a degree would be a good way to go.
DeleteSo, to be clear... They still passed the national nursing board exam fair and square. But somehow you are scarily unqualified because you didn't have the diploma beforehand?
ReplyDeleteConsider if some fake college told students they would get a guaranteed spot at the NFL Combine. If that student cuts the mustard and makes the NFL...what's so deeply wrong about that? The truth is that there is a lot of money to be made by making aspiring nurses go through "real" nursing school. But if those aspiring nurses can pass the board, what's the real issue?
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