I occasionally read the brief essays on persons who either steal identities or forge credentials as a nurse and actually get hired and work for days, months and even years before getting caught. As a nurse, who has found it more and more frustrating to accept the suspicious attitude employers have of nurses, Since  I've been one for many years and went through the battles of nurse's training and experiences to get to where I am today, with a broad range of experiences and stories to tell that are true and real, I find this somewhat offensive (but expected these days). It was the screening for drugs and now it is fingerprinting. However, I understand when I read these articles that there are a few out there "playing the game" for whatever reason truly without credentials or education. What are your thoughts on this, as fellow nurses? Why do you think someone would risk their freedom and integrity for such actions?

My uncle's wife flunked out of nursing school, but still wanted to be a nurse. She obtained a copy of a friend's license and photocopied it with her info on it. This was back in the early 1980's when your license was paper, like your SSN card. Anyway, she applied for a position at Duke medical Center in the ICU and got the job. They never bothered to check out the license since she had a copy of one. She trained OTJ until she learned the position and worked there for years. Around 1988 or 1989, her department had a spot license check and she was found out. She actually did a little jail time and a lengthy probation. It's scary to me to know that an uneducated, unlicensed person was working in the ICU undetected!