Medical officials are struggling to stop nurses with fake diplomas from caring for patients across the US.

Healthcare licensing officials in several states are scrambling to stop nurses with fake academic degrees from caring for patients after three Florida schools were accused of selling thousands of fake degrees.

In recent weeks, NYC regulators have ordered 903 nurses to either surrender their licenses or prove they have the proper education. Delaware and Washington state officials have revoked dozens of nurses’ licenses. Texas filed administrative charges against 23 nurses. Additional action is expected in additional states.

In some cases, nurses’ advocates have argued that states are questioning the credentials of nurses who are legally certified. But there is a widespread belief in the industry that nurses with fake diplomas need to be eradicated.

“The public needs to know that when they are most vulnerable, when they are sick, when they are in a hospital bed, the person who is at their bedside has received the necessary training,” said Jennifer Mensik Kennedy. , union president of the American Nurses Association.

The states are acting in the wake of Operation Nightingale, a federal investigation into what officials said was a wire fraud scheme in which several now-closed nursing schools in Florida sold fake nursing diplomas and transcripts from 2016 to 2022. Twenty-five defendants, including school owners and alleged recruiters, have been charged, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Marchenzie Lapointe said in late January. These cases are pending.

Some 7,600 students paid an average of $15,000 for fake diplomas, according to prosecutors. About 2,400 of those people then took the licensing exam to get jobs as registered nurses and licensed practical nurses or professional nurses in several states, prosecutors said.

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How did so many test takers pass the exam without the necessary classroom and clinical work? In some cases these were experienced LPNs aspiring to become RNs. Some of them were health care providers in other countries.

According to court documents, nurses have been hired across the country, including at a hospital in Georgia, Veterans Affairs medical centers in Maryland and New York, a skilled nursing facility in Ohio, and a nursing home in New Jersey.

Students came not only from Florida, but also from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Delaware. Many students took the licensing exam in New York City, where they can take it multiple times, investigators said.

Investigators identified the Florida Schools of Nursing as the Palm Beach School of Nursing; Siena College, a school in Broward County not affiliated with the college of the same name in New York; and the International Institute of the Sacred Heart, which was also based in Broward County and unrelated to the university of the same name in Connecticut.

It was not entirely clear how many of the approximately 2,400 nurses with diplomas from these schools currently work and where.

Federal officials shared information so states could prosecute nurses with fake academic credentials. Some states have taken action.

The Washington State Nursing Quality Assurance Commission revoked 17 RN licenses and denied licenses to four. The Delaware Board of Nursing has revoked 26 licenses. The Georgia Council of Nursing has asked 22 nurses to voluntarily relinquish their licenses.

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23 nurses facing revocation in Texas may continue to work while their disciplinary cases are pending. Texas Board of Nursing General Counsel James “Dusty” Johnston said new charges could be brought as officials gather “the right information for each person.”

A Veterans Affairs spokesman said he suspended 89 nurses “from caring for patients” across the country last year immediately after being notified by federal officials. The agency found no cases of harm to patients.

The New York City Board of Professions posted on the State Department of Education’s website that it expects some of the 903 licensees who attended schools to “actually attend the required hours and clinical classes and hold the proper licenses.” These people are asked to provide proof of a skilled care program.

Lawyers for some nurses in New York and Georgia say the investigation involves nurses who have legitimately earned degrees.

“Obviously, there are people who have fraudulently bought transcripts and should not, under any circumstances, be in nursing,” said Atlanta attorney Hana Williams. “But there are also people who legally went to these schools and did nothing wrong. And they are somehow mixed with fraudulent nurses.”

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Williams said her clients are hard-working immigrants who went to schools that were accredited at the time and have been working without incident for years.

Similarly, New York-based attorney Jordan Fensterman said he has clients who attended classes at one of the schools to get an RN degree and then worked during the pandemic. He said these nurses deserve due process.

The state council’s action comes as hospitals across the country grapple with chronic staffing problems.

“Hopefully, after the authorities sort it out, there will be fewer of them,” said Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association.