Editorial: Whose fault is it when an unlicensed nurse is hired?

The state of Pennsylvania makes it easy to figure out if your hair stylist or architect or real estate agent or any other licensed professional is able to work legally.

The Department of State’s website can answer your questions about permits and authorizations. The Pennsylvania Licensing System Verification Service allows access to information on everyone and every business with a certification from the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs.

It takes less than a minute to input the name, location and type of license into the website and have it spit out the pertinent information: license number, expiration date, status. Click on the name for more. Has this person received disciplinary action? How long has this person been licensed?

If you are looking at a nursing license, it will go even further. Pennsylvania’s registered nurses and licensed practical nurses are also entered in Nursys — a verification site operated by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Pennsylvania gives you a link to visit. You don’t even have to look it up yourself.

So how did Shannon Nicole Womack, 39, slip through the cracks?

The Pittsburgh woman was detained in a Washington County traffic stop on April 5. That was when things started to unravel. It took until July to enter a long list of charges, including forgery, corrupt organizations, theft- and drug-related crimes and more, but the central sticking point of all of them stemmed from one issue.

Womack — who has nine other confirmed aliases and seven Social Security numbers — is not a nurse. She has, however, been employed as one. Frequently.

Between October 2024 and April, state police say Womack worked for at least nine nursing homes in Western Pennsylvania, including Oak Hill Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Hempfield, Corner View Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Pittsburgh’s Larimer neighborhood, Eldercrest Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Munhall and Harmar Village Care Center in Harmar.

The state’s ease of verifying licensing would seem to place the responsibility for checking a prospective nurse’s credentials on the employer. A look at several different employment applications for area businesses employing nurses shows requests for more information than the state website would require for checking status.

It’s a different story when looking at some of the homes where Womack worked. Oak Hill and Eldercrest, for example, have nearly identical websites and no job applications. Instead, job seekers can fill out a contact form. Corner View has no website at all.

Could the state do more to warn would-be employers — or family members — that a person has no license? Yes. In Georgia, Womack is noted on a list of impostor nurses attempting to work without credentials. There are active warrants for her there, as well as Tennessee, Indiana and New Jersey for charges similar to those here.

But in Pennsylvania’s defense, looking up any of Womack’s names should have given anyone the information they needed.