FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office arrested a woman on Tuesday who investigators said posed as a registered nurse and cared for thousands of patients.
The seven-month investigation into Autumn Bardisa, 29, began in January 2025 after hospital administrators reported that they fired her for impersonating a registered nurse by using their license number and submitting false documents to be employed as an advanced nurse technician at AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway.
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Bardisa was hired by the hospital on July 3, 2023, as an advanced nurse tech working under the watch of a registered nurse.
When she applied for the position, Bardisa said she was an “education first” registered nurse, meaning that she passed the required schooling to become a nurse, but had not yet passed the national exam to get her license, according to FCSO
FCSO said Bardisa told the hospital that she passed the exam and gave a license number matching an individual with her first name, Autumn, but with a different last name.
She said it was different because she had recently gotten married and had a new last name. AdventHealth asked her to provide her marriage license, and she never did, according to the report.
In January 2025, she was offered a promotion, which gained attention from her colleagues. At the time, a fellow employee checked Bardisa’s license status and saw she had an expired certified nursing assistant license. The employee reported it to administrators, the report said.
AdventHealth opened its own investigation and realized she never provided her marriage license as requested, according to the report.
On Jan. 22, 2025, Bardisa was fired after she failed to confirm her identity. Officials then contacted FCSO to conduct a criminal investigation. The sheriff’s office interviewed several employees and the nurse whose identity she is accused of stealing.
The investigation showed that Bardisa shared a first name with the other nurse, who was employed by AdventHealth, but at a different hospital, and had attended school with her, but they didn’t know each other.
Detectives said they also learned that Bardisa provided medical services to 4,486 individuals from June 2024 through January 2025, despite never holding a valid nursing license.
On Aug. 5, detectives arrested Bardisa on seven counts of practicing a health care profession without a license and seven counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information.
She is being held on $70,000 bond.