PALM COAST, Fla. (TCN) — A 29-year-old woman stands accused of posing as a licensed nurse and treating thousands of patients.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation began in January after hospital staff reported that they fired Autumn Bardisa for allegedly impersonating a registered nurse. Hospital administrators claimed she used another person’s license number and sent in false documentation for employment as an advanced nurse technician at AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway, where she started working in July 2023.
When she applied for the position, Bardisa allegedly said she was an “education first” registered nurse, “meaning that she passed the required schooling to become a registered nurse but had not yet passed the national exam to obtain her license.”
During the hiring process, Bardisa purportedly claimed to have passed the exam and gave them a license number matching her first name, Autumn, but the last name was different. Bardisa allegedly explained that she had gotten married, so her last name had changed. However, Bardisa never provided her marriage license to the hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
According to authorities, Bardisa was offered a promotion in January, and a co-worker checked the status of her license and learned she had an expired certified nursing assistant license. The employee alerted hospital administrators, and Bardisa was fired on Jan. 22 after she failed to confirm her identity.
According to the sheriff’s office, upon further investigation, officials learned Bardisa stole the identity of another nurse who shared her first name and was employed by AdventHealth but at another hospital. Bardisa reportedly attended the same school as her, but they didn’t know each other.
Per an affidavit reviewed by WKMG-TV, one employee alleged that Bardisa sold them semaglutide, also known as Ozempic, and that Bardisa also gave another co-worker a birth control injection.
Detectives allege Bardisa treated 4,486 patients from June 2024 through January without a license.
Authorities obtained an arrest warrant for Bardisa on Aug. 5 for seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information. She was arrested at her home and is being held on $70,000 bond.
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