Major medical fraud concerns have been raised after dozens of young Britons boasted about helping relatives pass nursing degrees and other healthcare qualifications.
The shocking admissions posted online include admissions such as “when I was in college, a few of my aunties payed me to do their nursing uni work.”
Another profile, based in Britain, said “I did my mums, my aunts [university work] … I should be a damned qualified Nurse and Health and Social care degree holder me!”
The author, who deleted her profile after being contacted by GB News, added: “Everybody got a 1st Degree.”
The original post attracted hundreds of thousands of impressions and hundreds of quotes
X/PA
The shocking posts were made soon after the Nurses and Midwifery Council launched an investigation into “industrial-scale” qualifications fraud.
Responding to a post that said: “No wonder so many nurses seem mad. They’re not qualified,” another X user said, “I’ve witnessed this so many times. They don’t have basic maths knowledge even small numbers.”
They added: “One of my friends parents used to harass her to do ALL her uni work.”
One former university worker said: “I worked at a uni for a year and I can confirm this. Most of the kids were in college or uni so they were balancing A LOT.”
In another brazen admission, a young Briton said: “I remember my aunty made me do this when I was like 12 … she wasn’t dropping me home until I finished her work.”
They added: “My name needs to go onto that certificate.”
One stunning post, by a graduate in the West Midlands, said: “I was out here helping write someone’s masters in public health in year 10 whilst revising gcse work.”
Another poster, based in Britain but with a Ghanaian emoji in their online profile, said: “Pops’ degree is our degree.”
The post on X that sparked the admissions said: “I didn’t realise African kids were actually out here doing their parents uni work.”
It attracted hundreds of thousands of impressions and hundreds of quotes.
It received further responses, such as: “I did that too when I was like 12” and another that read: “Even my mums friends essays I was doing.”
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One user claimed that their aunties paid them to do their university work
X
Another poster said: “When I tell you that half of my mum’s assignments would never have been handed in it’s insane.”
One young man posted a laughing emoji alongside: “There’s 5 degrees in my family and I’d say I’m responsible for 4/5.”
This broadcaster has seen dozens of other admissions, many of which have since been deleted after they were approached for comment.
GB News understands that students on approved nursing programmes conduct 2,300 hours of academic learning, plus another 2,300 hours practice learning on placements.
The council’s approved education institutions sign off students as competent against the NMC’s standards.
The revelations come after it was exposed that hundreds of nurses are being investigated for “industrial-scale” qualifications fraud.
The Guardian said that these nurses are still practicing despite being under investigation, with a former head of the Royal College of Nursing saying that it could be putting NHS patients at risk.
The newspaper said that over 700 nurses are potentially involved in the scam, which it added allegedly involves “proxies impersonating nurses and taking a key test in Nigeria, which must be passed for them to become registered and allowed to work in the UK.”
Peter Carter, the former boss of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “It’s very, very worrying if … there’s an organisation that’s involving themselves in fraudulent activity, enabling nurses to bypass these tests, or if they are using surrogates to do exams for them because the implication is that we end up in the UK with nurses who aren’t competent.”
Responding to fresh concerns raised by this broadcaster of relatives assisting nursing students with coursework, an NHS doctor said it was “putting people’s lives in jeopardy.”
One user claimed that they did their mum's and their aunt's university work and got them a First
X
The experienced doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told GB News: “No part of a nursing degree is optional. Which part would you accept your nurse having skipped? How to dose medications? What sepsis is? How to spot an infected cannula? Management of pressure sores?”
They added: “It is extremely concerning if some nurses have only passed assessments due to the hard work of their young relatives.
“I have worked with nurses who seemed to have odd priorities, such as prioritising admin work over preparing and giving IV antibiotics for seriously ill patients, but had always assumed this was due to management pressures, but perhaps not understanding how and why we prioritise certain things is actually the cause.”
The doctor, who has worked in busy London hospitals, said: “These people openly admitting to doing their parents’ coursework is deeply troubling. To so blatantly say that they are putting patient safety at risk is an outrage.
“This is putting people’s lives in jeopardy. Patients could be being seen by nurses who have achieved their qualifications by virtue of their child’s work.
“To see them laugh about their behaviour is especially galling.”
Karl Williams, research director at the Centre for Policy Studies, told GB News: “Any evidence of nurses obtaining qualifications through fraudulent means is extremely concerning - but even more so if it turns out that this practice is widespread.
“Often we are told we need high levels of immigration to prop up the NHS, but if we are prioritising quantity over quality, we risk creating as many problems as we solve.
“It’s easy to talk up the benefits of immigration to the health service, but the public need to have confidence that anyone working within the NHS has the right qualifications to do so.”
Despite the widespread social media posts, the Nursing and Midwifery Council told GB News that it was not formally aware of any concerns in this area.