Group One background checks in Texas - Page 20

I agree with all of y'all (texas slang,) but we have to stand together, GO does not just affect an RN with a BSN or an ADN, a LPN or LVN, I was a Telemetry Tech!!!!!!!! Oh, and a nursing student, when my "business" happened. I have worked with "eggos" on all sides, the RN who thought she was better than the LVN, the LVN who passed her boards and now she is too good for her fellow CNA's she left behind. It should not be a matter of what initials we have behind our names, we should not only think of how it affects "me," but how it affects healthcare as well. We probably have all made "stops" in the ER and complained on how long it takes. While in whole this can be another HUGE debate, imagine if they were properly staffed. We didn't have to wait so long and trying to get DCed, oh my gosh!!!!!!!! I have never had a nurse not say, "I am so sorry it is such a crazy day, we keep getting admits and I am just spread thin." I have been to 2 hospitals that have said this to me. The problem....................under staffed!! So, it does not just affect my career, it affects me if I get sick, if my children get sick. When is enough, enough? If we can't learn to stand together, then we fall seperately.....one at a time. Is this what we went to Nursing school for? For a "consumer reporting agency," who can't tell the pericardium from the perineum, tell us where we can and can't work??? and yes to make changes, it will not do any of us any good to complain if all we are going to do is complain, we have to be proactive about it.
And if anyone is counting, besides myself, today is DAY FOUR that I have e-mailed all our favorite news personalaties!!!!

Just bear in mind that the BNE or BON's are not meant to represent nurses - they are meant to represent the public and protect the public from harm. They are not set up nor are they intended to provide any sort of representation for nurses and they never were.

History might be a good indicator in this case. The California Nurses Association and the Texas Nurses Association were both founded at the about same time (1903 and 1907 respectively).

Yet, here we are today ... a hundred years later ... with two major differences between the two organizations. CNA has gotten a landmark ratio law passed and literally pummeled the governor and the hospital industry when they tried to attack it.

TNA hasn't done much of anything and, unfortunately, things have only gotten worse for Texas nurses with the Group One situation.

So ... what's responsible for the difference? In my opinion, it's because CNA broke off from the ANA in 1995 ... They felt the ANA was totally ineffective on both legislative and political issues and, quite frankly, they're right.

The same thing happened with the women's suffrage movement. The more active (some would say radical) members of the movement got tired of the stagnation within the parent organization, and broke off to launch their own campaign. The result was women finally gaining the right to vote.

So ... if history is any indicator (and it usually is), nothing is going to happen until TNA breaks away from the ANA and becomes a lot more aggressive on behalf of nurses. Maybe it has to come from the membership or, maybe people need to form an entirely new organization all together but, something radical has to happen before anything will really change.

Afterall ... I doubt anybody wants to wait another hundred years just to end up with the status quo.

:typing

Hi! id also like to know if i can take a look at this group one report, just like we can have a free copy of a credit report. dont we have a right to obtain it before we go apply ? how can i do that?

Yes, they fall under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the same law that requires credit reporting agencies to issue reports on request.

But, unless you've worked for a Group One facility, you won't have a report to see.

This issue is that, because the member hospitals belong to Group One, they are a 'confederacy' of agencies. Sharing such info, by this reckoning, is no more intrusive then a hospital sharing such info internally.

~faith,
Timothy.

I work in a small hospital just east of Dallas, but I have worked in dallas hospitals before. I just heard of Group one. Can someone explain what this is?

Group One is a consumer reporting agency that maintains a "blacklist" of nurses in the DFW metroplex. Nurses whose names have landed on this supposed "blacklist" have extreme difficulties finding employment in DFW hospitals.

I am a new RN in TX; I graduated in may and got my licence this oct. I have been hearing about GROUP ONE; what is group one ? what type of record or info. goes into group one. Are graduate nurses and CNAs included in group one too? Is it public record or do you have to subscribe to it? Please reply.

There are numerous long threads on this BB about Group One - please use search.

Group One lists itself as a "credit agency" which permits it to handle records in a different manner than a reference service or a former employer. This allows it to discuss details of employment that are normally "blocked"or not passed on.

While this can be a good thing in some cases, in a "right to work" state where one can be fired or passed over for most any reason, it can also be seriously misused. Take also into account that many of "subscribers" (employers that pay fees for the reference service as well as contributing information on employees) tend to be forprofit chains, such as those associated with Columbia/HCA. People may get blackballed for things such as inadequate notice of intent to leave, after accepting a job, then finding that it was not it was billed, and quiting. In addition, in nursing, one often gets "let go" for one official reason, when the real reason may be related to intangibles such as personality clashes with management, being an activist for better conditions, etc. Then one gets listed as fired - not eligible for rehire....effectively cutting off jobs for the entire network of Group One subscribers.

People use incidents such as the murders perpetrated by C. Cullen (a nurse serial killer that went from facility to facility, w/inadequate info sent to employers) to justify this. But it gets abused by Group One.

All HCWers working in a Group One subscriber facility....can be reviewed by them. I know of some cases of PCTs that have been blackballed, thus I think that GNs and CNAs would also be reviewed by them if working in a subscriber facility.

Unless you intend to live and work as an RN or LVN in the DFW metro area (and surrounding counties), you do not have to worry about GroupOne (yet). GroupOne is not being used in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, or any other areas in Texas yet. Their main sphere of influence is in the DFW area.