Health Care Fraud: Stopping Nurse Imposters

Nurse Practice Acts are laws that regulate nursing licensure and ensure that all nurses meet the minimum standards for safe practice. A nurse imposter has not met these requirements but provides false and misleading information to others with the expectation that they will believe that the individual really is a licensed nurse or nurse practitioner. Once imposters penetrate the health care environment, they endanger patient welfare and the integrity of the profession. Advanced practice registered nurses should implement reactive and proactive strategies to minimize the nurse imposter's ability to penetrate and undermine the health care system.