States move to crack down on nurses with bogus diplomas from South Florida schools – Sun Sentinel

Medical licensing officers in more than one states are scrambling to forestall nurses with fraudulent instructional credentials from taking care of sufferers, after 3 South Florida schools had been accused of promoting hundreds of bogus diplomas.

New York regulators informed 903 nurses in fresh weeks to both give up their licenses or end up they had been correctly trained. Delaware and Washington state officers have yanked dozens of nursing licenses. Texas filed administrative fees in opposition to 23 nurses. More movements in more states are anticipated.

In some instances, legal professionals for the nurses contend states are wondering the credentials of caregivers who earned diplomas legitimately. But there’s vast settlement within the trade that nurses with fraudulent levels want to be rooted out.

“The public needs to know that when they’re the most fragile, when they’re sick, when they’re in a hospital bed, that the individual who is at their bedside has gone through the required training,” stated Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association union.

[ RELATED: Thousands have fake nursing diplomas after scam involving three South Florida schools, prosecutors say ]

States are performing within the wake of Operation Nightingale, a federal investigation into what officers say used to be a cord fraud scheme wherein a number of now-closed Florida nursing schools bought phony nursing diplomas and transcripts from 2016 to 2022. Twenty-five defendants, together with faculty house owners and alleged recruiters, had been charged, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe introduced in overdue January. Those instances are pending.

About 7,600 scholars paid a median of $15,000 for bogus diplomas, in accordance to prosecutors. Around 2,400 of the ones other folks then handed a licensing examination to download jobs as registered nurses and certified sensible nurses or vocational nurses in more than one states, prosecutors say.

How did such a lot of take a look at takers cross with out the specified study room and medical paintings? In some instances, they had been skilled L.P.N.s looking for to turn out to be R.N.s. Some have been well being care suppliers in different international locations.

The nurses were given jobs around the nation, together with at a clinic in Georgia, Veterans Affairs clinical facilities in Maryland and New York, a talented nursing facility in Ohio, and an assisted dwelling facility in New Jersey, in accordance to court docket filings.

Students got here now not best from Florida, but in addition New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Delaware. Many of the scholars took their licensing examination in New York, the place they are able to sit down it more than one instances, in accordance to investigators.

Investigators known the Florida nursing schools because the Palm Beach School of Nursing; Siena College, a faculty in Broward County that wasn’t comparable to the school of the similar identify in New York; and the Sacred Heart International Institute, which used to be additionally based totally in Broward County and had no relation to a college with a equivalent identify in Connecticut.

It used to be now not solely transparent how most of the more or less 2,400 nurses with credentials from those schools are lately hired, or the place.

Federal officers shared information so states may pursue nurses with phony instructional credentials. Some states have taken motion.

The Washington State Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission rescinded the R.N. licenses of 17 other folks and denied license packages for 4. The Delaware Board of Nursing annulled 26 licenses. The Georgia Board of Nursing requested 22 nurses to voluntarily give up their licenses.

The 23 nurses dealing with conceivable license revocations in Texas can proceed operating whilst their disciplinary instances are pending. Texas Board of Nursing normal suggest James “Dusty” Johnston stated extra fees may come as officers increase “the necessary information for each individual.”

A spokesperson for Veterans Affairs stated it got rid of 89 nurses “from patient care” national final yr instantly after being notified by means of federal officers. The company has now not discovered any cases of sufferers being harmed.

New York’s Office of the Professions posted on the state training division’s web page that it expects one of the 903 licensees who attended the schools “did, in fact, attend required hours and clinicals and are properly licensed.” Those individuals are being requested to have a certified nursing program put up verification.

Attorneys for one of the nurses in New York and Georgia say nurses who legitimately earned diplomas are getting stuck up within the investigation.

“There are obviously people who bought transcripts who are fraudulent and should not be practicing nursing under any circumstances,” stated Atlanta lawyer Hahnah Williams. “But there are also people who went to those schools legitimately and did nothing wrong. And they are somehow being lumped together with the fraudulent nurses.”

Williams stated her purchasers are hardworking immigrants who went to schools that had been approved on the time and feature since labored for a few years with out incident.

Similarly, lawyer Jordan Fensterman in New York stated he has purchasers who attended categories at one of the most schools to end up their R.N. levels after which labored all the way through the pandemic. He stated the ones nurses deserve due procedure now.

The state board movements are going down as hospitals around the country take a look at to deal with continual staffing demanding situations.

“Hopefully, the number is smaller once the authorities sort things out,” stated Kennedy, the American Nurses Association president.