Florida Woman Arrested for Treating Thousands Without Nursing License

A Florida woman has been arrested for allegedly posing as a registered nurse and treating more than 4,000 patients without a valid license, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed.

According to authorities, 29-year-old Autumn Bardisa was taken into custody on Tuesday after an investigation revealed she had provided medical care to 4,486 patients at a local hospital between July 2023 and January 2025.

Sheriff Rick Staly described the case as “one of the most disturbing examples of medical fraud” his office has ever handled.

Bardisa was initially hired in July 2023 as an advanced nurse technician, working under the supervision of a licensed nurse. In her application, she claimed she was an “education first” registered nurse, someone who had completed nursing school but not yet passed the national licensing exam.

Shortly afterward, Bardisa told hospital officials she had passed the exam and provided a license number belonging to another nurse with the same first name but a different surname. She allegedly claimed the name difference was due to a recent marriage, but failed to provide a marriage certificate despite repeated requests.

The deception came to light in January when Bardisa was offered a promotion. A colleague checked her credentials and discovered her nursing assistant license had expired. Hospital administrators quickly launched an internal investigation and terminated her employment on January 22 before alerting law enforcement.

Investigators later determined that Bardisa had stolen the license details from a nurse at another hospital, a former schoolmate she did not personally know.

Bardisa now faces seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification.