Police in Florida have arrested a woman accused of posing as a registered nurse and providing medical care to thousands of patients without a valid license — a months-long deception authorities say put lives at risk.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, 29-year-old Autumn Bardisa was taken into custody Wednesday at her home in Palm Coast. In the short span of eight months (between June 2024 and January 2025), Bardisa is alleged to have treated approximately 4,486 patients at AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway in spite of the fact that she’s never held a medical license.
The alleged scheme began to unravel earlier this year when hospital administrators reviewed Bardisa’s credentials while considering her for a charge-nurse promotion. When her higher ups realized that the only certification that she held was an expired Certified Nursing Assistant license an internal investigation was triggered, which led to her termination and the subsequent criminal charges.
Bardisa joined AdventHealth in July 2023 as an advanced nurse technician working under the supervision of a registered nurse. At the time, she told hiring managers she was an “education-first” RN — a designation for individuals who have completed coursework but have yet to pass the national licensing exam. She reportedly claimed to have passed the exam, providing a license number linked to someone with her first name but a different last name. When asked about the discrepancy, she allegedly said she had recently married but never produced documentation to verify the claim.
Investigators say Bardisa shared a first name and alma mater with an actual nurse employed by AdventHealth but had no personal relationship with her. Over a seven-month period, authorities allege, Bardisa impersonated that nurse, treating patients and accepting payment for her services.
She now faces seven felony counts of practicing a healthcare profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification — one set of charges for each month she allegedly misrepresented herself. She is being held at the Flagler County Jail on $70,000 bond.
“This is one of the most disturbing cases of medical fraud we’ve ever investigated,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement. “This woman potentially put thousands of lives at risk by pretending to be someone she was not and violating the trust of patients, their families, AdventHealth, and an entire medical community.”
Authorities are urging anyone who believes they may have been treated by Bardisa to contact the sheriff’s office at fakenursecase@flaglersheriff.com.
The case now moves toward prosecution, but for patients and hospital staff, the questions left behind — about trust, oversight, and how the alleged deception went undetected for so long — may prove just as troubling as the charges themselves.
