Misrepresentation as a "nurse" - Advice Appreciated!

Nurses General Nursing

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Greetings! I have never posted in here and I am not a nurse. I found your forum doing a google search about nurse misrepresentation in Arizona.

I was in a (not at my fault) motor vehicle accident involving 3 cars over a year ago and recently received one of the parties deposition that was taken under oath. The woman's deposition was filled with inaccuracies. In her testimony she stated that she is an Internal Medicine nurse working in Scottsdale for the past decade. I work at the Mayo Clinic as IT support and knew that you could search licensures and certifications through the states' BON, which I did using her full name and monikers. I was unable to find this individual anywhere in the BON licensure check tool and I have a feeling that she is not licensed or registered in another state and is misrepresenting herself in order to bolster her testimony about injuries. I have already emailed the BON to see if it is against the law to misrepresent oneself as a "nurse" in legal testimony to the general public or if that only applies when it comes to your patients. I am hopeful that I will receive a response but if anybody here could provide any insight I would be forever grateful. Thank you so much in advance for any advice!

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Did you check BOTH RN and LPN/LVN? Both are considered 'nurses'. Are advance practice nurses (Nurse Practitioners for example) licensed differently in AZ?

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Yes I believe so Mary. On the Arizona Licensure Verification link it states that it verifies AP, RN, LPN and CNA licensure or certification and Temporary licensure. I am not sure how to search the advanced practice RN's however unless AP stands for Advanced Practice.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Like all things 'licensure-related', this varies by state. In Tx, "nurse" is a protected title. You cannot use it unless you are either an RN or LVN. Violators (using the title) are given a cease-and-desist order & failure to do so will result in more severe civil penalties. However, if anyone misrepresents themselves as a nurse in a clinical setting (with patients), it becomes a criminal offense.

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I understand. Well thank you very much that is helpful to know.

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My apologies, I am now seeing that I need to reply directly to your message not as a new post. Obviously this is my first time posting in an online forum :unsure:. Anyway thank you for your advice.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

another option is that the individual could have a license under a different name. In TX we are obliged to notify the Board of name changes, but I know that is not always done quickly. I think you are wise to check up on this individual.

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I am wondering if the database includes previous licensures or just currently licensed nurses. Could she have let her license expire? Although that doesn't negate the current misrepresentation, it might explain why she used that experience...

That is really unfortunate :( best of luck to you!

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

I very rarely give the advice to contact a lawyer. Well, if this is bothering you that much and/or this is the case cracker, I would contact your lawyer. He could research the issues--i.e. in AZ is it against the law to misrepresent yourself, does she have a license in AZ or somewhere else, does a misrepresentation of her occupation somehow influence the case, etc?

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This may be a repost - I am having some network issues today. Anyway I wanted to thank all of you for your expert insight. I do plan on contacting my attorney with this information to have him investigate further. I have a feeling that if this woman is willing to lie under oath about her occupation and experience that could disprove a great portion of her testimony. As for licensure under a different name, I did search on the last name she gave in her testimony and her husband's last name with no results for either so I am assuming that name change is unlikely. I did consider calling the doctors office that she testified as her employer for the last 9 years to see if they had a nurse there under that name but I am afraid of the legality of that or that I may be crossing some line.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

You would not be crossing a legal line by just calling and saying, "May I speak to Susie X?" and if she answers hanging up!

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She could be a travelling nurse from another state, but do they have 10 year assignments? Did she list her employer? If yes, call there to ask to speak to her, using a blocked number so she can't determine whether you are trying to do recon on her.

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