Healthcare organizations face countless risks every day, but one emerging issue making headlines is the rise of imposter nurses — individuals posing as licensed professionals and gaining employment in nursing roles. While this isn’t a new problem, recent cases show that it is becoming more common, likely fueled by workforce shortages, multi-state licensing complexities, and increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics.
For compliance and HR leaders, this trend is a call to action: now is the time to revisit hiring processes to ensure vulnerabilities are identified and addressed.
What are imposter nurses?
As the name suggests, imposter nurses are individuals who fraudulently secure jobs in nursing positions despite lacking the proper licensure or credentials. Sometimes they are caught quickly due to poor performance, but in other cases, they remain undetected for years—placing patients, organizations, and reputations at risk.
Why this matters
Employing an imposter nurse creates a cascade of risks. At its most serious, patient safety is compromised. Beyond clinical risks, organizations face compliance and regulatory repercussions, possible overpayments, malpractice claims, and public relations fallout.
Given the growing attention on this issue, healthcare leaders should use this moment to examine hiring processes and strengthen safeguards against fraud.
Strengthening your hiring processes
The best defense against imposter nurses starts with collaboration between compliance and HR teams.
On the podcast this week, we discuss how compliance and HR teams can work together to stay ahead of this risk by proactively identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities in their organization’s hiring processes.
