Board: With a fake degree, Cedar Rapids woman worked 4 years as a nurse

For four years, an Iowa woman who obtained a fraudulent nursing degree through a Florida diploma mill worked for one of Iowa’s largest nursing home companies, according to state officials.

The Iowa Board of Nursing recently concluded there was “substantial evidence” that Helena Dahnweih of Cedar Rapids had engaged in fraud in order to procure a license to practice nursing in Iowa. The board voted to revoke Dahnweih’s license.

According to board records, Dahnweih first submitted an application for licensure as a registered nurse in early 2019, stating she had received her nursing associate degree in 2017 from Med-Life Institute in West Palm Beach, Fla. Her college transcript said she attended the institute for 10 months, from February 2017 through December 2017.

Dahnweih passed the National Council Licensure Examination in March 2019 and one month later, the Iowa Board of Nursing granted her a license.

In July 2021, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing announced an FBI investigation, code-named Operation Nightingale, into nursing education programs suspected of selling fake diplomas and transcripts. One of the businesses implicated in the investigation was Med-Life Institute.

It and others were alleged to have sold diplomas and to have encouraged “students” to apply for licensure in states thought to exercise a lower level of scrutiny on practitioners, and in states like Iowa that do not limit the number of times a person can take the National Council Licensure Examination.

The U.S. Department of Justice eventually prosecuted several individuals, including Johanah Napoleon, who was the owner of the institute and the Palm Beach School of Nursing. It was later determined that “multiple Iowa license-holders” may have participated in the scheme to acquire fraudulent licenses, according to the Iowa board.

Dahnweih reportedly told the board that the institute had initially informed her that tuition was $6,000, but she negotiated that down to $3,000. According to the board, she acknowledged she did not participate in any nursing coursework or clinical education at the institute, but did take a review course for the national licensure exam. She could not recall the names of any of administrators or instructors she may have interacted with, the board found.

Shortly before she received her Iowa license in 2019, Dahnweih began working as a registered nurse for Care Initiatives of West Des Moines — one of the largest nursing home operators in Iowa — and still was working there as recently as recently as this summer, according to the board.

At a recent Board of Nursing hearing, Dahnweih argued she believed her degree was legitimate. In revoking her license, the board stated it did not find that claim to be credible and that the wrongdoing in her case was “particularly egregious.”

The board noted Dahnweih claimed to have “no knowledge that negotiating the rate of tuition, little to no classroom instruction, uncertain class schedules, and faculty and staff using personal email addresses for official communication were all, at a minimum, highly unusual for a legitimate educational program.”

The board added that the evidence showed Dahnweih paid for a college transcript “showing she completed a number of courses at the institution, while she freely admitted to having never completed.”

Dahnweih is not the only Iowa nurse to have been implicated by the FBI’s fraud investigation. Last year, the board determined a West Des Moines man, Enome Massango, had worked for four years as an Iowa-licensed nurse after purchasing a fraudulent nursing degree from Florida’s Siena College of Health.

Massango allegedly paid a man for transcripts and diplomas as a “short cut” to completing his nursing education. He acknowledged that his educational program as a licensed practical nurse consisted of a single-day “review course,” and no coursework was associated with the registered-nurse program.

Board records indicate Massango had to take the LPN exam twice, and the RN exam four times, before passing the tests. While licensed in Iowa, Massango worked at Valley View Village, an assisted living center and nursing home located in Des Moines.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.