What Do Hospitals Check For in Background Checks?

Nurses Career Support

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Hi all,

I was offered a tentative position in a hospital pending "passing my background check". What does it involve and how long does it take? Would I get a call from them when I passed? I got a call from HR today asking me to confirm whether it's okay to call my previous employer. I gave my consent.

I feel like I'm holding my breath before I can celebrate my new job.

Specializes in NICU.
What is the purpose and what is it an employers business what your credit score is?

Many places check your credit score especially if you're in the finanical sector. They want to find out if you're at risk for possibly stealing from them. We nurses have access to people's personal info such as d.o.b., SS#, all info that make it possible to steal someone's identity.The assumption is that 'oh if you have a bad credit score you're likely to steal someone's identity or steal from the company.' Which isn't necessarily true, but that's what they assume. I've never seen a bad credit score hinder someone from being hired though.

In my opinion, if you know you've never done anything wrong, never been arrested, never been disciplined, what are you worried about?

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What is the purpose and what is it an employers business what your credit score is?

Many employers feel that your credit history reflects you as a person and how you handle responsibility. However, with so many people in a financial crisis, they may not look as harshly. But I will say, before the economy really crashed, I got hired as Loan Officer with an FBI Fingerprint Check. I had horrible credit (going to file BK this year.) And during the recession, I was hired as a Cash Control Officer for a large retail store. They did a credit check because I had to authorize it. They never mentioned anything about my crap credit. I also have no criminal record whatsoever, not even a traffic ticket.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
What is the purpose and what is it an employers business what your credit score is?

Credit reports usually give information as to your previous addresses, previous employers, who you owe money too, whether you tend to be late making payments, etc. They generally don't give your credit score (e.g. a FICO score or any other credit score). A credit report and a credit score are 2 different things: the credit score is a score based on the information found in a credit report.

The information in a credit report may help the employer confirm the items on your application/resume about where you worked, lived, etc. If you lied on anything, left out a job because you didn't want them to know about it, etc. the truth may show up in the credit report. That's another good reason for getting them on new employees.

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They will do a criminal background check for sure. I applied for a position knowing that I have a criminal back ground. However, they still did not deny me a position as a nurse. There are so many people that have experienced problems in their past I believe they don't look at it as much as they used too. Now, however if it is recent it could be a problem but some of mine are 14 and 17 years old and my Nurse Manager when I told her that I had felonies on my background responded with" I have several girls that work here who have been convicted of crimes, so she didn't seem bothered by it. So some employers will hire you with a background and some won't if that's what your worried about. :)

Hi I hope u don't mind me asking but where do you reside because I live in new Orleans just got my license but unfortunately Louisiana watch you for everything I have old charges from 1999 that's holding me back from getting a job now I feel like I wasted my time even going for nursing because I can't get a job😞

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Did you eventually get a job?

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