Originally Posted by vespalady 
I 100% agree that credit reports should not be a part of hiring. Being in school for so long has made it hard to survive and feed my family, let alone worry about my credit score. I have had to buy 3-4 days worth of food to feed a family of 3 with $10...and it sucks. I took my boards yesterday, and I'm very anxious to get the results and get back to work.
I'm also a military vet, and went for a job in the 90's (911 dispatcher, which was my military experience). I had to drop out from the application process because my exhubby messed up my credit at that time before we divorced, Coral Gables did credit checks for the job, and I thought that it was stupid back then...they said it was for people to not be tempted to take bribes.
In the meantime, I HAVE worked out alternate forms of credit through my bank (like a line of credit on my account, etc...that boosted me a few points). I would hate to have suffered all this time barely getting by, to not get jobs because of my credit score.
As for the article....I remember my mom telling me about her nurse coworkers stealing drugs in the 70's and 80's, and I think that if you already have a tendency to be drug abuser, that getting into a career that could be so tempting for you was a bad idea. I can't even take painkillers when I need them, so I know I will face no temptation whatsoever. There are other careers that help people that you could have chosen, without any drugs around to tempt you. Just my opinion.
I was in a situation much like yours when I first got into nursing. My poor credit was more self inflicted. When I was younger, I was a landscape laborer and definitely lived outside my means (eating out every single day, had to have the newest/biggest/best TV and video game system and every game you could imagine, long vacations to places etc).
When I got into nursing, my first year was spent doing OT and sending excess cash to credit collectors (who had given up on me a long time ago, I had to seek them out). All told, I probably paid out close to 10K towards credit repair my first two years in nursing. I'm much happier now having done it even if my credit is only "good" not "great" now. I'm working on that too.
I've defended the use of credit scores for hiring purposes before, but IDK if its as valid today as a few years ago. Unlike my situation where my credit score reflected my lack of responsibility, I think a lot of very reliable/responsible people are tagged with bad credit because they simply had no options other than to not pay a bill or two.
I still see the reasoning in wanting to see credit scores:
1. People with a lot of debt and low scores often, like I did my first two years, want to do OT and start improving their standing credit wise. That, in and of itself, is not a problem. The problem arises when this person becomes disgruntled over OT not being available. Often, if the OT they are seeking is not available, they will work a second job which affects their schedule flexibility with the first job. It also means they are more tired while at work.
2. People with debt/poor scores sometimes are in a situation where they have to go wherever the money is. They are in a position where they have to make up for lost time. Often, people with debt skip from job to job, seeking a higher pay rate. Work environment, amt. of money spent by the institution for training and all sorts of other things get overlooked in favor of that 75cent hourly wage increase. If I were sitting in the HR person's seat, this would scare me a bit. Do I really want to bring someone aboard who might jump ship at the first sign of a small raise despite having been treated well by my facility?
3. Then you have the stress/moral of people in debt. Some, not all, tend to be affected by their home finances in a way that follows them into work. They are less able to handle days where it seems nothing is going according to plan. Because they might be working a lot of OT or a second job, they are often the one's telling everyone to help them "cause I can't stay late, I only have a few hours to sleep before I go to my second job."
There are people who can handle two jobs or the stress of having to improve their credit without it being reflected in their work. But, everyone in this situation claims they can handle it, not all of them are correct. Fact is, most can't.
It's hard to see a middle ground in all this, to find a place where people who are not tagged with poor credit scores due to the economy not because of poor decision making are not being turned down for jobs they would have performed admirably in. Really, that falls on the shoulders of the HR Dept., to be able to identify when a poor credit score is going to be a problem and when it will not be. I imagine a lot of HR recruiters don't possess these skills, so they play it safe and stick to a blanket policy of nit hiring people with low credit scores and debt.
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