Imposter Alert?

Cathlabnurse46 · Jul 27, 2008

hey guys...i'm in nursing school and i got an assignment to do a powerpoint presentation over the nursing imposter alerts on the bon...i went there and i don't see much other than the actual alerts with the pictures and what the imposters did. does anybody have any ideas of how i should go about looking for more information on doing this powerpoint? i just don't see that this is going to be enough information to actually do a presentation over. it's for an exam grade, so that makes it worse.
help?!?!

what is a "nursing imposter alert"? i never knew these existed. there was a story locally here in tampa a few weeks ago about a nursing instructor a phcc (pasco hernado community college) who taught nursing student and claimed to have had a nursing lic. she in fact did not.

phony nursing credential fooled phcc for 18 years - st. petersburg times

new port richey-when sandra wilbanks applied to teach health courses at pasco hernando-community college 18 years ago, her credentials were an affable teaching style and a photocopied nursing license.

only one was genuine.

wilbanks, 59 of shady hills, was arrested this week and charged with forgery, scheming to defraud and practicing or advertising as a nurse without a license-all felonies.

since 1990, she taught courses including phlebotomy, medical language and fundamentals of disease at the school's new port richey campus. students raved about her. they wrote in class evaluations that she was the best teacher they ever had and that she cared about them personally.

every few years, when the school asked faculty members for updated licenses, wilbanks handed over a copy of a registered nurse's license-though only after a delay, a college spokeswoman said thursday.

then, during a re-accreditation this spring, a clerk plugged wilbanks' license number into the state database and came up with someone else's name.

that discrepancy prompted the school to contact the state department of health, which investigated and called the pasco county sheriff's office.

xjenn · Jul 27, 2008

haha.

I didn't know either until I got this assignment.

If you go onto the board of nursing website, under disciplinary action there is a section for imposter alerts...it shows the people, but how do you make a presentation out of that...it's supposed to be to help teach the other people in my class about it and I'm not getting that kind of information...

xjenn · Jul 27, 2008

what is a "nursing imposter alert"? i never knew these existed. there was a story locally here in tampa a few weeks ago about a nursing instructor a phcc (pasco hernado community college) who taught nursing student and claimed to have had a nursing lic. she in fact did not.
phony nursing credential fooled phcc for 18 years - st. petersburg times
new port richey-when sandra wilbanks applied to teach health courses at pasco hernando-community college 18 years ago, her credentials were an affable teaching style and a photocopied nursing license.
only one was genuine.
wilbanks, 59 of shady hills, was arrested this week and charged with forgery, scheming to defraud and practicing or advertising as a nurse without a license-all felonies.
since 1990, she taught courses including phlebotomy, medical language and fundamentals of disease at the school's new port richey campus. students raved about her. they wrote in class evaluations that she was the best teacher they ever had and that she cared about them personally.
every few years, when the school asked faculty members for updated licenses, wilbanks handed over a copy of a registered nurse's license-though only after a delay, a college spokeswoman said thursday.
then, during a re-accreditation this spring, a clerk plugged wilbanks' license number into the state database and came up with someone else's name.
that discrepancy prompted the school to contact the state department of health, which investigated and called the pasco county sheriff's office.

thank you for that story though. that's interesting! and i hadn't heard about it.

Cathlabnurse46 · Jul 27, 2008

check the link... the is a picture on the page. It would make a great topic for a PPP and intersting for you instructor to know that a fellow teacher even had been caught!

RN1989 · Jul 27, 2008

Check the TX BON site. TX is going to stop issuing paper licenses due to the risk of them being stolen and altered for use by imposters. All employers will have to verify licensure online. You can use this as part of the presentation about what BONs are doing to help thwart imposters.

You might also look at FL. They put everyone's info online - name, address, etc. Many of us think this is not only dangerous for the staff but could also give imposters more ammunition for identity theft.

imanedrn · Jul 27, 2008

haha.
I didn't know either until I got this assignment.
If you go onto the board of nursing website, under disciplinary action there is a section for imposter alerts...it shows the people, but how do you make a presentation out of that...it's supposed to be to help teach the other people in my class about it and I'm not getting that kind of information...

Check with your instructor to see what kind of information s/he actually expects you to present. You can tell her what you've found so far and ask if that's sufficient -- or if s/he expects you to go into greater detail. Also, you could try calling your state BON & ask what they're doing (other than posting information on the BON website) to do about this problem.

I would bet that most lay-people don't even know nurses need to be licensed to work (as opposed to just going to school and getting a degree) in addition to the fact that there's actually a state entity that licenses us in addition to the fact that said state entity is actually designed to protect the public, and not the nurses that it licenses.

Good luck!

xjenn · Jul 27, 2008

Thank you so much!

I'm going to look into it.

It's really sad, and even more scary that people have even been able to get away with this as long as they have.

xjenn · Jul 27, 2008

Check with your instructor to see what kind of information s/he actually expects you to present. You can tell her what you've found so far and ask if that's sufficient -- or if s/he expects you to go into greater detail. Also, you could try calling your state BON & ask what they're doing (other than posting information on the BON website) to do about this problem.
I would bet that most lay-people don't even know nurses need to be licensed to work (as opposed to just going to school and getting a degree) in addition to the fact that there's actually a state entity that licenses us in addition to the fact that said state entity is actually designed to protect the public, and not the nurses that it licenses.
Good luck!

Thank you!

I hadn't even thought of calling them.

I've gone through all the search engines looking for anything and that is probably the best way to go.

Thanks to all of you for your help!