SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The California Board of Registered Nursing has issued a warning to anyone who’s sending death threats to students who’ve raised concerns about an online nursing college the agency is currently reviewing.
“As an applicant for licensure, unprofessional conduct is cause for denying a license or placing restrictions on it. It’s kind of shameful honestly to hear that’s what’s going on,” said Reza Pejuhesh, an attorney for the state nursing board, at a meeting earlier this month.
Pejuhesh made the remarks after Rachel Baxter, a recent graduate of Nightingale College, said she received death threats after she went public in a Team 10 story about concerns she had with the school.
Team 10 reported on Aug. 3 that Baxter was among hundreds of recent Nightingale College graduates unable to apply for nursing licenses because of an ongoing curriculum review that may require them to go back to school for a semester or longer.
Nightingale files lawsuit against board
After Baxter shared concerns about her learning experience, which included using a virtual reality headset to role-play a nurse with an AI patient, she told Team 10 her Instagram account was hacked.
“The situation has taken a pretty significant toll on me mentally,” she said.
The Board of Registered Nursing has told Nightingale College students time spent wearing a VR headset cannot count toward California’s requirement that nursing students complete at least 500 hours of direct patient care.
The two sides remain at odds over that requirement, which the board says requires students to spend at least 30 hours in each clinical area, such as medical-surgical nursing, pediatrics, obstetrics, psychiatric nursing and geriatrics.
Judge denies request for emergency order
The board says the requirements are mandated by state law, but Nightingale disputes that and filed a lawsuit this week in Sacramento Superior Court asking for a judge to issue an emergency order.
In the request , Nightingale argued the regulator’s actions have led to lost employment opportunities, enrollment declines and reputational harm.
The board told the court in a filing that the public will be harmed if "unqualified nursing applicants" are granted licenses.
On Friday, Judge Richard Sueyoshi ruled against Nightingale’s request for a temporary restraining order finding it was not an emergency because the college has known since May that the board was going to stop issuing approvals to out of state graduates.
“The 500-hour figure the BRN is now floating was never the rule or regulation, and it was never formally added,” said Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the college.
The board told Team 10 there are 873 Nightingale College graduates who have their applications for licensure on hold due to the ongoing review.
Nearly 2,000 grads previously licensed
In our August 3rd report, Baxter told us she was disappointed every clinical placement she received was at a skilled nursing facility and didn’t get hands-on exposure to other clinical areas.
After we aired our story, Nightingale College posted a message on its website saying it was “disappointed by the misleading reporting.”
The notice said nearly 2,000 Nightingale graduates have been licensed in California and told students the board continued to approve graduates’ applications to take a final test needed for licensure.
Nightingale added the state board was reviewing, not investigating, whether the college’s curriculum was equivalent to the instruction required for licensure in California. “The BRN is not empowered to ‘investigate’ our school and has stopped claiming that it is doing so.”
The online college then claimed the Board of Registered Nursing had failed to name a single deficiency in its curriculum and said if students wanted to express their opinion concerning the Team 10 story, they could email Investigative Reporter Austin Grabish.
'Smear campaign' for speaking out: former student
After our story was shared in social media groups where Nightingale students communicate, Baxter said she received an influx of harassment from people who told her, “They hope I get ripped apart limb by limb.”
She isn’t the only critic of the college who’s been on the receiving end of hateful messages.
“Ever since I came forward raising concerns, asking legitimate concerns, I’ve been harassed, stalked. There has been a smear campaign that started to form against me simply for asking legitimate questions,” Bibi Ijaz, a former student, told the Board of Registered Nursing during public comment at its August 11 meeting.
Ijaz told Team 10 after she came forward with concerns about virtual reality headsets students were given, she received death threats, and her and her mother’s addresses were posted online.
Nightingale calls threats 'unacceptable'
In one message she showed Team 10, the sender said, “Bibi I hope you f------ die b----!!! We (gonna) find you and we know where you live. Don’t ever think you can stay hidden for what you’re doing to Nightingale!!! We worked so hard to get here and you are over there talking to the board giving them more details than they needed to know!! You just couldn’t s--- the f--- up had to run your mouth to them now you will pay for the price for what you f------ did!!!!! Gone !!!!”
Nightingale College told Team 10 the threats are “unacceptable at every level,” adding the school does not tolerate harassment and acts immediately on reports under its code of conduct and Title IX processes.
The Board of Registered Nursing’s executive officer, Loretta Melby, told students at the meeting that while the review of Nightingale College remains ongoing, based on the information the board has so far, “it does not line up that the Nightingale curriculum provided to you meets our requirements.”
She told students the board had informed Nightingale the college was not equivalent to California’s licensing requirements.
Complaints, transcript issues
“Nightingale has said that we are missing some information or interrupting that information (wrong) and they are working with us to show what they believe is true that they do meet our requirements, but our current review shows that it does not.”
The nursing board’s executive team revealed during the meeting that it received an increase in complaints about Nightingale in 2025 and discovered transcript issues earlier this year.
The agency claims it received transcripts from Nightingale College on behalf of multiple applicants, with the transcripts erroneously indicating the students had completed coursework and graduated from the program, when the students had in fact been dismissed from the college.
“This raised concerns about the possibility of other erroneous transcripts from Nightingale College showing that an applicant completed coursework required for licensure that were not detected or that the Board was not made aware of,” Board spokesman Vincent Miranda told Team 10 in a statement.
Nightingale said the transcript issues involved two students with code of conduct issues who proceeded through licensure on their own, without the college’s knowledge.
“Once we discovered the discrepancy, we reviewed it and disclosed it to the board,” Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the college, said.
Nightingale president Jeffrey Olsen told Team 10 the school is doing everything it can to get graduates licensed.
“There is very little that makes me more upset than the thought of an individual going through the program and not being able to successfully practice as a nurse.”
