Roughly 800 nurses in Minnesota will receive thousands of dollars in repayments from a testing preparation company accused of falsely promising to help expedite licensed practical nurses' path to becoming registered nurses, according to the Star Tribune.
Licensed practical nurses turned to the College Network for financing and accelerated testing to becoming RNs, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson said Monday. The company charged nurses as much as $4,000 for test preparation material and promised to pay the fees for equivalency exams in an online school in New York that would allow nurses to test out of numerous required courses. However, when the nurses needed the funds for their exam fees, College Network either delayed payments by months or didn't pay at all, according to the report.
The company seemed like a fitting solution to nurses who couldn't afford or manage the time required to study and test for a degree on top of working and supporting families. The College Network said it would finance the nurses' preparation material with an annual interest rate of 12 to 15 percent.
Attorney General Swanson said a court injunction temporarily prohibits College Network from selling its program to anyone else in Minnesota and requires the company to pay back students within seven days of refund requests, according to the report. Attorney General Swanson said she aims to find out whether the company was intentionally deceptive and should be subject to civil penalties.