States move to crack down on nurses with bogus diplomas

Medical licensing officials in multiple states are scrambling to stop nurses with fraudulent academic credentials from caring for patients, after three Florida schools were accused of selling thousands of bogus diplomas. New York regulators told 903 nurses in recent weeks to either surrender their licenses or prove they were properly educated. Delaware and Washington state officials have combined to yank dozens of nursing licenses. Texas filed administrative charges against 23 nurses. States are acting in the wake of Operation Nightingale, a federal investigation into what officials say was a fraud scheme in which several now-closed Florida nursing schools sold phony nursing diplomas and transcripts.