Fake nurse with stolen nursing license treated Texas patients for years, feds say
For years, a woman treated patients in Texas — and taught students in nursing classes — while pretending to be a licensed nurse, according to federal authorities.
The 35-year-old Laredo woman is accused of using the name and Texas Board Nursing license number of a real licensed vocational nurse and registered nurse who had “the same or similar first name and last name” as her to apply for nursing jobs, authorities said.
From about January 2017 through December 2019, the woman was hired by nine health care providers in the Southern District of Texas, according to court records. Sometimes she never showed up to the jobs, authorities said, but other times she did nursing work without credentials or the necessary qualifications.
She was arrested Monday, Sept. 11, and has been charged with making false statements related to health care matters and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
She did not have a defense attorney listed in public court records as of Sept. 12.
When applying for jobs, authorities said the woman gave a stolen license number, pretended to have a nursing degree from Kaplan College and lied about her criminal history.
“Once hired by health care providers ... (she) would engage or attempt to engage in the profession of LVN and RN nursing, to include delivering medical treatment, services, medications, and items to patients, obtaining sensitive, confidential, and private medical information from patients, and evaluating and diagnosing medical conditions of patients, despite (her) lacking the formal education, training, credentials, and lawful authority to do so,” prosecutors said.
Her jobs included conducting nursing care in a hospital, providing pediatric nursing home visits and treating wounds, according to the indictment filed in federal court.
The woman also got a job as a surgical technician assigned to work in labor and delivery, but she never showed up for work, authorities said.
And in 2018, she worked as a Certified Nurse Assistant program instructor who taught training classes for certified nurse assistant students in a Job Corps training program, according to records show. She did not have the necessary license to teach the courses.
If she is convicted of the charges, she’ll face up to seven years in prison in addition to fines, according to the release.
This story was originally published September 12, 2023 at 8:15 AM with the headline "Fake nurse with stolen nursing license treated Texas patients for years, feds say."