Nurse degree scheme raises legal questions for hospitals

As nursing boards and state authorities work to root out the several thousand nurses practicing with fake degrees nationwide, questions are emerging about hospitals' legal obligations to do their own investigations. 

The coordinated scheme to sell aspiring nurses fake diplomas and transcripts has allowed more than 2,800 individuals to pass the National Council Licensure Examination without proper training, many of whom went on to gain licensure and employment at healthcare facilities nationwide, federal authorities said. 

Rather than waiting for state nursing boards to identify these individuals and take disciplinary action, hospitals should be doing their own deep dives into their personnel files, David Schumacher, former deputy chief of the healthcare fraud unit for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, told Becker's.  READ MORE