Fake Palm Beach Nurses Sought Nationwide

The alleged Palm Beach nursing school diploma mill busted in January prompted medical licensing officials in multiple states to stop potentially thousands of nurses with fraudulent academic credentials from caring for patients.

Regulators in New York State told 903 nurses in recent weeks to either surrender their licenses or prove they were properly educated, officials in Delaware and Washington state yanked dozens of nursing licenses and Texas filed administrative charges against 23 nurses, with more actions in additional states expected to follow. 

The efforts come as hospitals nationwide are struggling with chronic staffing challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Twenty-five people across Florida, Texas, New York and New Jersey were arrested for participating in an alleged diploma mill based in Palm Beach that created an illegal shortcut to licensing and employment for aspiring nurses, authorities have said. A Florida grand jury indicted the suspects on charges of wire fraud and other counts that carry a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.

The 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 — issued more than 7,600 fake nursing diplomas before being shut down, authorities said. Around 2,400 of those people then passed a licensing exam to obtain jobs as registered nurses and licensed practical nurses or vocational nurses in multiple states, prosecutors say. 

It was not entirely clear how many of the roughly 2,400 nurses with credentials from these schools are currently employed, or where.

Attorneys for some of the nurses say nurses who legitimately earned diplomas are getting caught up in the investigation.

-With Associated Press