If you are a licensed nurse with Sacred Heart International Institute nursing program credentials, you need professional license defense services relating to the Operation Nightingale nursing school scandal. Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has closed after the FBI obtained criminal charges alleging that several individuals sold fraudulent Sacred Heart educational credentials for nurses to obtain licensure and employment.
State licensing officials across the country are now threatening the licenses of nurses who relied on Sacred Heart International Institute credentials to continue and complete their nursing education. Get the skilled and experienced attorney defense you need to overcome your Sacred Heart International Institute nurse licensing issues. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now for the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team. Trust national professional license defense attorney Joseph D. Lento with your nursing license defense.
Sacred Heart International Institute Formation and Approval
Sacred Heart International Institute's founder Charles Etienne first incorporated the school in 2006 as Sacred Heart School of Nursing and Allied Health. Charging documents indicate that Sacred Heart first obtained its Florida Board of Nursing approval for its practical nursing program in 2014. The school's social media site explains that its practical nursing program instructs in personal, family, and community health concepts, nutrition, human growth and development, body structure and function, interpersonal relationship skills, mental health concepts, pharmacology and administration of medications, and legal aspects of nursing. Sacred Heart International Institute's practical nursing program was a one-year program consistent with the Florida Board of Education curriculum. Graduates were eligible to sit for the NCLEX-PN for licensure in states nationwide.
Sacred Heart International Institute Nursing Education
While Sacred Heart International Institute may not have offered an approved program with the long history of other nursing programs, to obtain and maintain Florida Board of Nursing approval, it must, for a time and to some students, have offered the curriculum, facilities, and instruction necessary to meet educational standards. The Florida Board of Nursing does not approve educational programs without confirming their competent design and staffing. Many nurses holding Sacred Heart International Institute educational credentials may well have fully earned those credentials, holding the knowledge and skills for competent, practical nursing. When you attended Sacred Heart International Institute under its Florida Board of Nursing approval, you had good reason to trust in your nursing education.
Sacred Heart International Institute Credentials Scandal
Charging documents filed against Sacred Heart International Institute's founder allege that “from in or around November 2020, through in or around July 2021,” school officials sold 588 false and fraudulent diplomas and educational transcripts. The criminal allegations include the fraudulent sale of CEUfast, Inc., continuing education course credits to meet state licensing requirements. Charging documents in a related criminal case allege the sale of these fraudulent credentials through or in connection with other entities: Nursing Bridges, Jean's NCLEX Review, and United Hearts Consultants. The criminal charges in both cases seek convictions and forfeitures of unspecified amounts the defendants allegedly received. Significantly, though, the criminal charges do not allege fraudulent sales throughout Sacred Heart's operations from its inception in 2006 or approval in 2014 but only in later years and over a limited period. Your Sacred Heart International Institute credentials may be perfectly legitimate despite the criminal allegations.
The Sacred Heart Scandal's Licensing Impacts
If you hold Sacred Heart International Institute educational credentials, then you likely face a state licensing investigation. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing and its member licensing officials across the country have been cooperating with the FBI to identify nurses with fake Florida nursing school credentials. State licensing boards in Texas, New York, Georgia, and dozens of other states have been publishing notices of license actions against nurses holding credentials from Sacred Heart International Institute and other Florida nursing schools involved in the scandal. Those notices generally demand that the nurse with suspect credentials voluntarily relinquish those credentials or face a license revocation hearing. The notices also require nurses with credentials from Sacred Heart International Institute or the other involved schools to prove the legitimacy of their credentials with specific forms of evidence, submitted promptly to specific officials in the required form. If your nursing license relies in any part on Sacred Heart International Institute educational credentials, then your license is at risk.
The Value of Sacred Heart Credentials
Your choice to attend Sacred Heart International Institute for its practical nursing program may have been your best option or even your only option at the time. But Sacred Heart International Institute had Florida Board of Nursing approval. You could reasonably rely on that approval for trusting that you would get the nursing education there that you needed. That trust is, after all, the point of Florida Board of Nursing approval. When you completed Sacred Heart's curriculum, you were completing a state-approved curriculum that meant you were acquiring the knowledge and skills you needed. Since then, you've likely completed other nursing education, perhaps earned nursing degrees, and passed the National Council Licensure Exam. You may also have practiced nursing for a deeply appreciative employer, caring for your patients competently and with compassion. Value your Sacred Heart International Institute credentials. They helped get you where you are.
Fighting Sacred Heart Credentials Charges
State licensing boards have the authority to enforce their educational requirements. They do so to protect patients and the public. But those boards must follow fair procedures whenever they threaten to suspend or revoke a nurse's license. You met licensing requirements when you first applied and got your license. Your state's licensing officials must now give you a fair chance to defend the legitimacy of your Sacred Heart International Institute educational credentials. Retaining skilled and experienced nursing license defense representation is your best move now that your Sacred Heart credentials are in question. The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team and national professional license defense attorney Joseph D. Lento are available to help you defend your Sacred Heart International Institute educational credentials in your nursing license proceeding, with your other nursing school, or with your employer. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now for your best available defense.
