Nicola Oldmeadow desperately wants to work as a nurse. She may even have convinced herself that she is one.
She knows that having a PIN number issued by the UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting is enough to convince many employers.
So she goes about forging documents in order to get herself on the nursing register.
First, she acquires a genuine PIN card, issued to nurse Kate Light. Then she applies for registration to the UKCC, giving Kate Light as a referee.
The UKCC sends off its forms and confirmation comes back from Kate Light and one of the national boards.
Nicola Oldmeadow is registered.
But the truth comes out when the suspicious manager of the nursing home where Ms Oldmeadow has found a job writes to the UKCC. Ms Oldmeadow is not only posing as a qualified nurse, but also claiming to be Kate Light.
Her registration is suspended and she is warned that she must provide evidence of good character if she ever tries to register again. But she does so, this time using the name and PIN number of another nurse.
The police prosecute. The case is thrown out on a technicality.
So far as anyone can tell, Ms Oldmeadow has not actually harmed any of the vulnerable elderly people she has worked with while posing as a nurse.
But the risk is always there.
Emergencies occur regularly in nursing homes. A trained nurse will have skills that an unqualified person does not.
Nicola is typical of the 30 cases of nurse imposters the UKCC deals with every year. Professional conduct director Mandie Lavin believes these cases are only the tip of the iceberg.
'It is difficult to investigate individual imposters because, by definition, you don't know who they really are, ' she points out.
'With persistent offenders like Nicola Oldmeadow we write a warning letter, but she takes no notice. If warned by their employer, people often scarper.'
The UKCC, like the Royal College of Nursing, wants protection for the title 'nurse' so the public can be confident that the person caring for them is properly qualified.
Ambulance organisations, too, believe there should be restrictions on who can call themselves a 'paramedic'.
Similar demands are made by the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine, which says there are 'thousands of people out there getting their hands on the general public' without training or qualifications.
Registrar Mike Hall says there are 1,800 more people claiming to be fulltime chiropodists than appear on the state register, and it is probably 'far worse with physiotherapists'.
The CPSM is signed up to the Home Office system for notifying relevant bodies of criminal convictions and police cautions. Since last May it has been told of 39 cases, but 28 of these involved people who were not registered as the professionals they claimed to be.
There is a similar problem with psychotherapists, as public health minister Tessa Jowell acknowledges. But she holds out little hope of early government action.
'Basically, anyone can put a plaque outside their door and say they are some kind of therapist, ' she told a meeting last week.
The situation is a matter of 'grave concern' for Shelagh Davies, chair of the psychotherapy faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, who says there are many dangers posed by therapists who are not signed up to recognised codes of practice and ethics.
Some imposters might be well meaning but unaware of the minefields they can get into when trying to help seriously disturbed patients. Others might have more sinister motives.
It can be lucrative, both because of the high rates of pay compared with, for example, a healthcare assistant, and because where the 'nurse' is caring for an elderly person, this can give them access to the patient's money. Others may want access to drugs or to children.
Yet there is a simple way to detect bogus nurses. Employers could make it a routine part of their recruitment procedure to telephone the free confirmation service offered by the UKCC.
At present, NHS trusts do not have a good record for checking that the job applicant claiming to be a nurse is in fact on the register. Nor does the private sector.
Nursing agencies, however, are scrupulous about checking that the people they supply to trusts are properly qualified and registered.
Ms Lavin wants such checks to be made mandatory. She says it is difficult to mount a successful prosecution against a bogus nurse, and the penalties do not deter.
Someone found guilty of falsely purporting to be a nurse is likely to be given community service or, if a persistent offender, to be fined up to£500 - money that can be easily recouped if they get away with it a few more times.
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