In 2022, the Georgia Attorney General tried to issue Shannon Nicole Womack with a cease-and-desist order for posing as a nurse.
But that’s when she allegedly hit the road to do the same in other states.
The Pennsylvania probable cause warrant details a string of health care facilities where she was dismissed for misconduct and allegedly stealing medication. At the time, the facilities had no idea she wasn’t a real nurse.
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Womack’s name and picture have been on the Georgia Secretary of State’s public nurse imposter alert warning page since 2022.
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Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray talked to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about the case on Channel 2 Action News at 6.
“Hiding out in other states, she figured she’s far enough away in Pennsylvania. That’s probably, what, a 12-hour drive up to Pittsburgh, and she was gonna be safe, but she wasn’t,” Raffensperger said.
But Womack was hiding in plain sight, allegedly used a string of names and aliases to pose as a nurse at nursing homes and heath care facilities across six states.
It was only Womack’s expired Georgia tag that finally put an end to it. Investigators said patient prescription drugs were found in her car during a traffic stop in Pennsylvania.
The probable cause affidavit says investigators discovered Womack had 20 different aliases along with seven different Social Security Number combinations.
“This goes to public health and public safety,” Raffensperger said.
He oversees the nursing board and told Gray the board turned Womack’s case over to the Georgia Attorney General three years ago.
“This goes back to 2022. We’re getting a lot of complaints,” Raffensperger said. “The licensing board had started doing a deep dive and actually got a cease-and-desist order. But she had fled the state.”
Just in the Pittsburgh area alone, Womack worked as an LPN, RN and RN supervisor at seven different facilities using a variety of fake identities.
Authorities say she passed background checks in part because she “went so far as creating her own staffing agencies, which was not legitimate, in order to pick up shifts.”
“She was going through proper host agency channels and then created her own, picking up the phone and transferring those jobs to herself,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Rocco Gagliardi.
Raffensperger says a nationwide nurse staffing shortage puts facilities like nursing homes at particular risk to imposters.
“There’s a real shortage of nurses, and I’m really grateful that we’re really leaned into that in Georgia to get more through the nursing program, but there is a shortage. So that means that people are desperate to find someone with a licensed credentialed nurse,” he said.
The court papers say in many of the jobs Womack only lasted a matter of days before being placed on do not retain lists for theft and other poor performance.
She’s currently behind bars in Pennsylvania where she’s facing a long list of charges.
Channel 2 Investigates reached out to the attorney general to see if she will also be charged here and are still waiting on a response.
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