A Department of Public Health administrative hearing on alleged credential problems for a registered nurse and advanced practice nurse focused on where the respondent received clinical training and when investigators sought supporting documents.

The respondent, identified in the record only as the nurse on the stand, told the panel she used the Blackboard platform to access coursework and that her clinical training took place at Jacobi Medical Center, Bronx Lebanon and Lincoln Hospital. She said she completed required assignments at Medlife Institute in Naples, Florida, listed the school on her Department of Public Health application and “did not attempt to hide it.”

The questioner pressed whether the respondent had faced any complaints dating to her practice beginning in February 2015; an objecting attorney questioned relevance but the hearing officer, Jerry Mitchell, overruled that objection. The respondent answered, “No disciplinary records.”

On the timeline of evidence, the respondent said DPH requested receipts and travel documentation in May 2025 when she was notified of the allegations and did not request those materials in 2016 when she applied to sit for the NCLEX. She told the panel she would have had access to bank records, emails and supervisors to corroborate travel if earlier requests had been made.

The respondent identified multiple supporting exhibits: affidavits from Jacqueline Sampayo and Christina Williams attesting she traveled to Florida to attend school and that she worked long hours (she described working "70 to 80 hours a week" while supporting a young child), a video taken outside a hotel before class, her Medlife Institute associate diploma, NCSBN authorizations to test, and renewal records showing she repeatedly listed Medlife Institute as her initial U.S. nursing education.

She also described continuing education and licensure steps after Medlife: a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Chamberlain University, a Master of Science in Nursing from Walden University in a psychiatric program, ANCC board certification as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (05/07/2022–05/06/2027), and APRN licensure first in Texas and later in Connecticut (Connecticut APRN license noted in the record as granted in 2024). She testified to inpatient and outpatient experience, saying she had been a charge nurse in nursing homes and that she managed “40 patients” on certain shifts.

Counsel debated the relevance of showing scarcity of psychiatric providers to the remedy sought (revocation or other discipline); several objections to questioning about workforce scarcity, education credit counts and the personal impact of license loss were raised and, in some instances, sustained by the hearing officer. An objecting attorney characterized the proceeding as seeking to remove the respondent’s licenses over a grade in one course; the counsel for the respondent argued such context was relevant to remedy.

After reviewing additional credentials, including a Texas DEA registration that authorizes prescribing controlled substances and an affidavit from current supervisor Vera Cruz, the hearing was paused. The hearing officer directed a break until 02:00 and said redirect or cross-examination would resume then.

What happens next: the record was paused and the proceeding will resume after the scheduled break to continue questioning and allow counsel to present or cross-examine further witnesses and documents.