Fake Nurse Fired After 20 Years On The Job

Fake nurse in Quebec discovered and fired — after 20 years on the job
This one's interesting. I'd imagined a kind of comedic scenario with some bumbling wide-eyed imposter getting just about everything wrong, colleagues growing more and more skeptical of their credentials as the years pass... however the opposite appears to be true, the fake nurse's colleagues describing the notion of them having no formal experience 'impossible'.

Health officials in Quebec have discovered that a woman who had been working as a nurse and caring for hospital patients for 20 years was an impostor.
The health authority in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of eastern Quebec fired the woman this month from her position at the hospital in Jonquière.
The health authority said the woman managed to get hired and keep her job by providing the nursing licence number of someone with the same name.
Her ploy was discovered a few weeks ago when she enrolled in a training course. An official noticed that the age listed on her licence number did not match up with her actual age.
She was immediately suspended pending an investigation, which led to her dismissal.

This raises some questions about the validity of academia vs real-world experience- whether someone in a situation like this should be punished and stripped from the job permantly or punished and perhaps allowed a shot at certification and resumption of their position.
There will be punishment no doubt, this will tick off a lot of people who've worked very hard to get through med school and feel quite cheated...
The legal repercussions likely wont allow them to work in the profession again, however 20 years of experience is nothing to shake a stick at.
And besides, if Mila Kunis can lie about her age to get on That 70's show, or Robin Williams can pose as a nanny to spend time with his kids, if Mulan or Sarah Edwards can pretend to have a penis to fight as a soldier...
Against the weight we place on our rules, how much value do we put into the acts done in the name of the greater good?

Fake it till ya make it y'all ☆
ADAM&EVIL

Too harsh punishment; let her ride the wave till the end i say

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

"Against the weight we place on our rules, how much value do we put into the acts done in the name of the greater good?"

In this case, the authorities DID THE RIGHT THING.
She may have overcompensated by being really nice to patients and staff .
Only way to avoid discovery for twenty years.

You seem unable to understand this imposter PUT LIVES AT RISK.

What if YOU get into a car accident and your trachea is crushed and unable to breathe as the Ambulance gets YOU to ER.
If this fake nurse does not know how to intubate, YOU DIE !!! Joe Schmuck off the street does not know how to intubate
Death certificate will state "car accident" as the cause but in this case the real cause of death would be the fake nurse !!

How many people did this fake Quebec nurse kill over the years ??

Is that not blinding obvious to YOU ???


"Fake it till ya make it " ??????

No !

Then , you would be OK with a fake doctor performing heart surgery on you or your kid ?
Right ?

You are supporting the rallying cry of the below 85 iQ crowd too stupid to understand the vast scope of what they don't know and that the LARGE volume of information required and essential is the reason it takes 4 years to be an RN nurse

a reply to: M5xaz
Seriously? You think people cant learn outside a classroom setting?

The lady did the job for 20 years, I'm sure if she had a record of killing people it would have been noticed. If that happened and it wasn't noticed I would question the facility, not the individual.

Personally, I'll take an unlicensed nurse with 20 years experience over a doctor fresh out of school any day.

a reply to: M5xaz
Well first, I didnt and dont defend her crime, she should be punished of course.
I wouldn't condone or recommend this behaviour ever, but I also wouldn't condone drinking alcohol ever or parachuting ever, or eating sauerkraut because I dont fancy the smell.
You sound almost attacking and are far too assumptive, because I don't support what you say I do AT ALL.
I used this example to ask a deep philosophical question, if what we do can justify how we did it.
Like the Tianmen Square incident or Ghandi's acts proving that defiance can be the right choice, or how the destruction of a baby Hitler would have been an ultimate salvation for millions, it's just philosophy.
Nothing about that says anything about my views or opinions, I dont know how you got to that conclusion.
Anyway, on point
A better example may be spies in wartime, they've saved untold numbers of lives yet decieved to do so- and we applaud them for their heroism and bravery. What about the Mulan example, or the example from Ms.Doubtfire?

One can't justify a crime in itself of course, and that's my query for debate.
When IS it justified, IF it can be.

And the whole fake it till ya make it thing is a simple catch phrase, I'm not telling people to do that
Only people in the rally crowd would think I'm saying that literally

a reply to: Vector99

Good point
20 years will guarantee you some seriously useable experience
If they were so bad at it or hurting people, they would've never lasted so long anyway

Helping slaves cross the border to freedom was illegal as well once upon a time, and I can name at least one person lauded as an absolute hero for keeping that up in secret for years.
The ends SOMETIMES justify the means, and the line we draw to define the limit of our acceptance is very hard to place
Depends upon our relative values and how well things turn out ofter the fact

originally posted by: M5xaz
a reply to: ADAMandEVIL
You seem unable to understand this imposter PUT LIVES AT RISK.


You are supporting the rallying cry of the below 85 iQ crowd too stupid to understand the vast scope of what they don't know and that the LARGE volume of information required and essential is the reason it takes 4 years to be an RN nurse

My mother went through nursing school and became a registered nurse. She also has such a low IQ that I'm quite certain she'd test as legitimately retarded. Honestly, having a nursing degree means absolutely nothing if people like my mother are able to obtain it. I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm saying it because it's true. I'd actually feel safer in the care of this fake nurse than in the care of nurses like my mother, especially considering that I just about died once because of their collective stupidity.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

Just wait for the law suits if anyone died whilst in here care, she certainly has to go as she is in a position of extreme trust...

However the question of can she do the job better than someone who has a degree I personally would say certainly and it seems that is the case.

Some of the most talented and down right good people I know did not have much if any formal education and they are holding down great jobs many traveling the world with IT firms or in the Oil industry where word of mouth is a very good way to get employed. Fact is the years you spend in a expensive day care could and in many situations should be used learning the craft of the job.

There is a swing happening right now where experience is slowly being accepted as more valuable than a degree, 4-6 years of hard graft in a role will teach you far more life skills and what you really need to know rather that reading a text book and writing copious exams with a hangover .....

My 2 groats worth that is all...

a reply to: trollz

So all nurses are morons???

Make sure you make your views known to the ICU nurse if you ever find them calculating the correct amount of Norad to put in that syringe or where exactly to set that that PEEP level on the vent or how about you tell them how stupid they are as they tell the doc that no actually that is a STMI on your ECG or how about looking at that ABG that says yes you do need BI-PAP....

Good luck with that.....

a reply to: M5xaz

I think honestly that the job of a Nurse has changed a lot over the last 20 years or so and I don't really think that the vast majority of the public quite understand how. I don't think they realise that its actually the nurse who might be reading that ECG or interpreting that blood work, they just see someone cleaning bums and taking BP's but they don't actually see the calculations involved in getting the drug dosages just right, they don't see the nurse who has just passed that ALS course that the doctor sitting next to them failed. They don't quite get that the reason for the doc putting in that chest drain is actually because a nurse felt the surgical emphysema, or that actually its the nurse who knows exactly what to put on that nasty wound, I could honestly go on all day the point is that these days nurses do much much more than I think the public give them credit for. That even before you start looking at the kind of work of nurse practitioner's/specialists/managers and even nurse consultants.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

Her ploy was discovered a few weeks ago when she enrolled in a training course.

She obviously was keeping up on training once she was in the medical field. In 20 years, she has most obviously not seriously caused harm or her duplicity would have been found out sooner.

More than likely, she has self taught as well as basically apprenticed her knowledge in this field. Hands on experience and observations of others, often are more enlightening than sitting in a classroom setting.

She seemed dedicated to helping others. She was dedicated enough to continue to learn...thus taking up work provided training even after 20 years. I don't know how to feel about this. 20 years is a long time. Obviously, her younger self made a desperate poor decision, but it seems she has a natural or learned ability and skill to be able to pass as a RN.

Formal education should not be the only standard.

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

If she kept the job for 20 years was she a fake nurse or just a nurse without qualifications ?

a reply to: ADAMandEVIL

If she has been a proficient ""Fake Nurse"" for the past 20 years then i say no harm no foul really.

Sometimes degrees and qualifications are not worth the paper they are printed on.

And if she saved lives and helped to alleviate the pain and suffering of the people in her care, then there is nothing fake about her really.

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: M5xaz
Seriously? You think people cant learn outside a classroom setting?

The lady did the job for 20 years, I'm sure if she had a record of killing people it would have been noticed. If that happened and it wasn't noticed I would question the facility, not the individual.

Personally, I'll take an unlicensed nurse with 20 years experience over a doctor fresh out of school any day.

If someone was practicing Pharmacy under my license, while not doing the huge amount of work, putting in the time to get trained (and let's not forgets about the 6 figure student loans) I WOULD BE PISSED. The public puts their trust in health care professionals, to not punish someone who does this, would erode that trust some what....at least imo.

How she was not caught right away is rather disturbing to me as well. How on earth did she make it through credentialing when her birth date didnt match the one on the license she was practicing under?

Also, this is fraud. She pretended to be someone else, and do a job she was not trained to do for TWENTY YEARS. Now, did she learn a lot while there during that time, yeah most likely, but that is not the point. She stole someone else's hard work and a license and title she did not earn, it is disgraceful.

If she wants to take the Nursing Boards, and do it right, and if the Board allows her to do that, so be it.

ETA: However, most of these Licensing Boards (especially here in PA where I live) take this kind of thing VERY seriously. I imagine they will not be happy about this, and they are the ones who determine is she has the right to practice and call herself a RN. Would be surprised if they let her do it though, after this.

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

So what about the politicians that we place our faith in who promise the Moon and deliver sfa?

Should they not also be punished for not keeping up on their end of the deal where election promises are concerned?

Our trust in our care professionals is already eroded considering there is profit to be had.

At least this person did what it said on the tin even she did not have the qualifications for 20 odd years.

That's more than most to be honest.

I'd say, if anyone died under her care... lock her up and throw away the key!

I think it’s funny, and hope they don’t feel to bad about it. So many professions out require so much school that bares no weight on what they do is the real crime.
A new nurse hasn’t traech’d anybody either and would not be allowed to perform that task or any other like threatening procedure without being taught on the job and monitored for the first few months. The medical equipment from 20 years ago is obsolete now and you are trained on the job for all new equipment.
As a professional fireman/emt I could train someone on the job (which we do anyway) and they would do just fine. They could retire and know just as much as anybody who went through a college fire academy just because things evolve and we are always training. Same with just about any professional up to and including a Doctor.

a reply to: M5xaz

You seem unable to understand this imposter PUT LIVES AT RISK.

Because she had no official piece of paper, or because her skills were not up to par?

a reply to: imitator

But people die, especially sick people.

So chances are im afraid.