Nursing is not an easy profession and surviving nursing school and passing a national board exam are no walks in the park. People studying for their nursing license are at work on their degrees virtually every minute they are not asleep or at work. And all nurses who have worked their way through school and studied for their boards got a retroactive slap in the face this week.
The Department of Justice announced this week that more than two dozen people in Florida were charged with wire fraud for providing fake nursing school diplomas. The people, who could each be facing up to 20 years in prison, sold over 7,600 fake nursing diplomas, which would allow the recipients to sit for boards for their Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)/Vocational Nurse (VN) licenses. The institutions involved in the scam were Siena College in Broward County, the Palm Beach School of Nursing in Palm Beach County, and Sacred Heart International Institute in Broward County. All of those schools are now closed. Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough of the Miami office of the FBI stated:
Health care fraud is nothing new to South Florida, as many scammers see this as a way to earn easy, though illegal, money. 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.
How these people would have ever passed their National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) is a mystery, although someone who had been an LPN/VN might know enough to pass the RN exam. Or someone could have completed the bulk of their coursework without graduating and possibly taken enough practice exams to slide by. Or they may have taken review courses.
But the chances of any of those approaches being successful are minimal. The board exam not only tests someone’s knowledge but does so in real time based on their answers. After a certain number of questions, the exam will automatically shut down if the algorithm decides that a person has either mastered the information or has not.
And since the exam is a national one, it employs an exhaustive question bank. So simply having practiced for an exam without the benefit of an education will not help ensure that one receives a passing grade. It is not easy to fake one’s way through nursing boards. But even if one did manage to pass the boards once such a person began practicing, his or her lack of knowledge and skill would soon betray the individual, at least in terms of being an RN, and in some cases as an LPN/VN. Contrary to popular perception, RNs do far more than hand out pills, take temperatures, and swap out bedpans.
Such a scenario could present serious and, in some cases, even life-threatening dangers to patients. Someone who has memorized answers to a test without having actually done the academic and clinical work necessary for a degree would be a hazard when it came to administering medications, assessing patients, and accessing critical thinking skills learned in nursing school. Or providing proper care in an emergency situation.
Moreover, it is an insult to any nurse who has made the good faith effort to learn everything necessary to hold a license and is genuinely dedicated to healing people.
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