Florida woman pretended to be a nurse, treated over 4,000 patients
A 29-year-old Florida woman, Autumn Bardisa, has been arrested for allegedly pretending to be a nurse and treating more than 4,000 patients using another nurse’s license.
Bardisa worked at AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway Hospital for nearly two years before her secret was uncovered. She was hired in July 2023 as an advanced nurse tech.
During her application, she claimed to have passed her nursing exam and submitted a license number that appeared valid but belonged to a different nurse with the same first name.
When asked to explain the different last name on the license, Bardisa told the hospital she had recently gotten married and promised to provide a marriage certificate. She never did.
Despite never holding a valid nursing license, she was allowed to work and took part in medical care for 4,486 patients between June 2024 and January 2025. Her fraud only came to light after she was offered a promotion.
A colleague checked her license status and discovered it was expired. This led to an internal review and her eventual termination on January 22.
On August 5, Bardisa was arrested at her home while wearing blue scrubs. She is facing seven counts of practicing without a license and seven counts of using someone else’s identity.
Her arraignment is scheduled for September 2.
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@cbsnews Police in Flagler County, #Florida say they arrested an alleged “fake nurse” who treated more than 4,000 patients, despite not having proper qualifications. Autumn Bardisa was arrested – while wearing scrubs– and has been charged with seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information. She worked at AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway in #PalmCoast and when she was offered a promotion, a colleague noticed her #nursing assistant licensee had expired. “This is one of the most disturbing cases of medical fraud we’ve ever investigated,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said. #nurse
