Nurse Background Checks: 5 Must-Have Screening Services

Nurses are the unsung heroes of the medical world, spending hours on their feet caring for others and working directly with patients to carry out doctors’ orders. Therefore, nurses are trusted implicitly by people who seek treatment in a private practice or hospital. Patient trust, frequent consumer interaction, and easy access to prescription drugs make healthcare criminal background checks and pre-employment medication tests for nurses essential.

Healthcare practices and hospitals must employ skilled and ethical nurses to provide the best care to patients, maintain a competitive edge, and avoid litigation.

To establish qualification for a position, nurses’ background checks need to be extensive and thorough. They must also comply with regulations set by the Joint Commission, a non-profit organization that accredits and certifies healthcare organizations and programs in the United States.

Here are some common healthcare screening services for practices and hospitals to run on nursing candidates:

Criminal History Search

A nursing candidate may have a criminal history that endangers your patients and organization, so criminal background checks for nurses must be very extensive. Along with a local or jurisdictional search, practices will need to run a national criminal history search and a national sex offender search, especially for nursing jobs in pediatric or geriatric departments.

A social security search will verify an applicant’s previous addresses and may also provide additional county jurisdictions to search for criminal records. A federal criminal history search is necessary to ensure applicants have not committed any federal crimes that make them ineligible to hold a nursing position.

Verification of Education, Employment, and Credentials

Healthcare organizations know employing a nurse without the proper qualifications threatens patients’ health and safety and can cause legal troubles. Therefore, it is pertinent that nurses’ background checks include professional verifications of their degrees, certifications, licenses, and work experience.

Running employment verifications through a professional, accredited background screening company ensures that a nursing candidate’s resume is accurate. Verification specialists run reference checks to discover a candidate’s title, rehire eligibility, performance details, and more at previous jobs. They will also have access to databases and licensing boards that confirm details regarding a nurse’s educational background and licenses.

Drug Testing & Other Occupational Health Services

A pre-employment drug test for nurses is vital due to healthcare workers’ frequent exposure to pharmaceutical drugs. Nursing candidates who pass a drug screening may be less likely to engage in medication theft from a facility, and they may be more trustworthy when distributing medications to patients. You may also run other occupational health checks like physicals and immunization tracking to ensure candidates are healthy enough to perform the job and are not putting others at risk.

At InfoMart, we offer a one-stop shop for all occupational health needs for your practice or hospital. We use an integrated system and fully mobile platform to make HR workers’ and candidates’ lives easier during the hiring process. It puts online self-scheduling, consolidated events, and a candidate’s records together in one convenient location, which both speeds up the process of hiring for healthcare organizations and streamlines the process for busy healthcare workers.

Healthcare-Specific Screenings

There are certain databases exclusive to this industry that need to be included in a healthcare background check, such as the Fraud and Abuse Control Information System (FACIS ®) and the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) List of Excluded Individuals/Entities. These lists contain the names of people who are prohibited from working in the healthcare industry due to past indiscretions or illegal acts.

Post-Hire Screening and Employee Monitoring

It’s equally important to run post-hire background checks on nurses to ensure that your employee remains in compliance with your criminal history qualifications throughout the duration of their employment. Due to stresses from their jobs, pressures from their personal lives, or exposure to pharmaceuticals, the candidate who once had a perfect background check may have gotten involved in criminal activity during their time at your company.

Many healthcare organizations do this by running annual post-hire background checks. However, employee monitoring for nurses is an innovative solution that makes screening for current employees much easier and more thorough. This employee monitoring technology scans nationwide data to deliver near-real-time results when an employee’s name and PII match a criminal case, keeping employers in the know year-round.

A Modern Screening Experience for Nurses

When a nurse’s background check and pre-employment drug test match a practice or hospital’s standards, they are ready to begin the onboarding process. The right screening provider for healthcare organizations will ensure a seamless hiring process for nurses, using integration to make things smooth from start to finish.

InfoMart knows that hospitals and practices rely on thorough, accurate background checks with quick turnaround times. With over three decades of experience in the screening industry, we have built a modernized background screening program that integrates with most HR technology systems and tells you everything you need to know about nursing candidates while maintaining compliance.

To learn more, request a quote here or call (770) 984-2727 ext. 4 to speak to one of our sales representatives about how we’ll tailor our solution to provide the best background checks for nurses.

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About Tammy Cohen

Tammy Cohen, an industry pioneer and expert in identity and employment screening, founded InfoMart 30 years ago. Deemed the “Queen of Screen,” she’s been a force behind industry-leading innovations. She was most recently the first-to-market with a fully compliant sanctions search, as well as a suite of identity services that modernizes talent onboarding. Tammy revolutionized the screening industry when she stepped into the field, developing the first client-facing application and a due diligence criminal search that has since become standard for all background screening companies. Cohen has received national awards and honors for her business and civic involvement, including Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Top 25 Women-Owned Firms in Atlanta, Enterprising Women Magazine’s Enterprising Women of the Year award, the YWCA of Northwest Georgia’s Kathryn Woods Racial Justice Award, and a commendation in the 152nd Congressional Record. To learn more about Tammy, visit www.tammycohen.com.

About InfoMart

InfoMart has been revolutionizing the global background and identity screening industry for 30 years, providing businesses the information they need to make informed hiring decisions. They develop innovative technology that modernizes talent onboarding, including a first-to-market biometric identity authentication application and a verified sanctions search. The WBENC-certified company is a founding member of the Professional Background Screening Association, and they have achieved PBSA accreditation in recognition of their consistent business practices and commitment to compliance with the FCRA. The company is dedicated to customer service, speed, and accuracy, and it has been recognized for its success, workplace culture, and corporate citizenship with over 45 industry awards. To Get the Whole Story on InfoMart, please visit www.InfoMart-USA.com, follow @InfoMartUSA, or call (770) 984-2727.