Florida Woman Who Treated 4,400 Patients Without License Will Not Serve Jail Time

A woman from Florida who posed as a nurse and treated more than 4,400 patients without a license was sentenced to probation and community service. The woman pleaded no contest to her charges to avoid jail time. Although the accused was given probation, authorities called this case deeply disturbing.

According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, a 29-year-old woman identified as Autuma Bardisa from Palm Coast, Florida, entered a guilty plea on April 7. Bardisa entered a guilty plea to the unlicensed practice of healthcare and fraudulent use of identification.

Circuit Judge Dawn Nicholas withheld adjudication and sentenced Bardisa to five years of probation and 50 hours of community service. The court offered the sentence as a part of an agreement she reached with the prosecutor. Bardisa has also been ordered by the court to write an apology letter to the nurse whose license number she used.

As part of the plea deal, Bardisa forfeited the nursing license she had obtained after her arrest by the Florida Department of Health and is barred from working in the medical field during the probation.

Originally, according to authorities, Bardisa was charged with seven counts of unlicensed practice of healthcare and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information following a seven-month investigation.

Authorities said she treated more than 4,400 patients between June 2024 and January 2025. During this time, Bardisa falsely presented herself as a licensed nurse at Advent Health. Investigators determined that Bardisa never held a valid nursing license while working and instead used the license number of another nurse who shared her first name.

The case stemmed from several months of investigation involving both the state and federal health agencies after hospital authorities discovered that Bardisa was another nurse's license number and had falsified records to obtain a job as an advanced nurse technician.

According to investigators, Bardisa first applied for the job under an “education first” designation typically used for nursing graduates who have not yet passed their licensing exam. She later claimed to have completed the exam and provided a license number that belonged to a different nurse with the same first name.

To explain the inconsistency, she told hospital staff that she had recently changed her name after getting married but never produced documentation to support the claim. However, according to investigators, Bardisa was promoted in January 2025 despite missing paperwork.

The inconsistency came to light when a co-worker independently checked her credentials and found hat she held an expired certified nursing assistant license, prompting the investigation.