The College of Licensed Practical Nurses previously flagged a woman who Central Health discovered late last year had been fraudulently passing herself off as a registered nurse.

Lisa Driscoll worked at at least two separate long term care facilities in the province while unlicensed.

The CLPNNL says it received a call from an employer indicating that it had received an application from Lisa Driscoll who was seeking employment as an LPN. While doing their due diligence, the employer discovered that Driscoll was not on the CLPNNL’s register and contacted the College. The College then learned that Driscoll was working as an LPN at Chancellor Park, at which time the home and the RNC were contacted.

The College says the licensure process in place for licensed practical nurses provides assurance to the public that an LPN has the necessary knowledge, skill and judgement to provide safe, competent and ethical nursing services. The College says any situation where an unlicensed person tries to pass themselves off as an LPN is “very concerning.”

In the meantime, Central Health last month revealed that Driscoll, who was hired through an agency, and who had been previously flagged by the College of Nurses in Ontario, had fraudulently presented herself as a registered nurse and worked a number of shifts at Lakeside Homes in Gander last fall.

Both the College of Licenced Practical Nurses and the College of Registered Nurses post public lists of all registered members in the province for employers and the public to reference, but College of Registered Nurses Executive Director Lynn Power says you can’t prevent someone from fraudulently passing themselves off as something they’re not.

She says part of the mandate of any regulatory body is to provide a public registry so that the public, or an employer, can look up and see if someone has a licence and the condition of that licence—for instance, if it’s in good standing.