Fingerprinting Texas Nurses

U.S.A. Texas

Published

How's everybody feel about this plan? I just got the notice today and am not feeling good about it.

TPTB already do background checks on us and have organizations like Group One to keep track of us....I feel this is 'big brother' getting more info on us than we need...

How's everybody else feel??:confused:

Specializes in Too many to list.
Any job that allows access to peoples health, financial or other intimately personal data, or allows access to children should be rigidly controlled in terms of criminal background.

The really sad thing is not that the BNE is doing this - but that it is necessary at all. It is sad that we live in a world where we have to even worry about someone who take advantage of someone in the worst way possible for their own selfish needs - ie stealing morphne from a cancer patient who would then be in pain, or who would molest and terrorize a child...that is what is truly sad.

I agree, it is sad. I've worked with impaired nurses. And predators, scare me too. I guess my gripe is not with checking us out. It's just how many ways do they need to do this by? It really creeps me out, when they start talking retinal scans etc. I long for a simpler time, but I do know it is not possible in this place at this time in history. Gauge, I'm just tired, been around too long, I guess.

I am in nursing school and will be done in August. This is the first year that they started doing fingerprint checks. I had to do mine three times because the board did not approve of them. Finally they did on the third set. I do not really like the idea either but in a way it is a good idea so they do not hire criminals( I am talking about killers and sex offenders) as nurses. Yeah, the government is getting pretty nosey and it is only going to get worse!! You know the government wants to make it look like people are crazy but I wonder why? Its really them that is doing stuff to make us go bolistic (justthought I would add that one in there):rotfl:

HelllloNurse, I didn't know you were in Texas!! Sounds like we've worked at the same hospital...also had a work injury and was blown off like you were. I too am tired of the big business/anti worker environment here...am originally from a union state and it is getting to me...:(

Brownie, we've discussed Group One before on the regular forum but lots of folks don't seem to believe how powerful it is here. I guess we don't know til it happens to us or a friend. It's a background check organization...essentialy a dirt collector on nurses. It is affiliated with our hospital association in DFW and is protected as a third party "consumer credit' organization.Like Helllo referred to, a nurse can find herself essentially blackballed by a vindictive manager. If a nurse is fortunate enough to find out she has a 'Group One black mark', she can send for a copy and deal with it (rebuttal is allowed). Now it may be fairly benign, she might post a rebuttal, but STILL not get called for interviews...so I suspect there is more to what they are saying behind our backs. Posssibly this nurse is vocal and a troublemaker? A union proponent? Had a work injury? Who knows..

Now our BON will mandate fingerprinting for all nurses. This concerns me. It's like we are criminals or something...plus I don't like all this government intrusion into our personal lives. Just me.

Maybe I'm overreacting to the fingerprint thing. I know other states require this. Just wanted some other opinions to ground me a bit if I am...LOL!!!

Nice to visit with other nurses in this area!!! :)

hmmm...I wonder if the Docs have to be figerprinted as well. Sure seems like the people I know in Medical school don't. Strange

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

Apparently because the Board of Medical Exminers is willing to spend the money to get the more expensive background checks, instead of the FBI checks done is the answer I got. Although I bet they pass that cost along to the licensee - they would have to.

Specializes in Emergency and ICU.

The cat is out of the bag. I believe that some nurses foreign and domestic nurses had criminal backgrounds and false paperwork and slipped into nursing. I believed that nurses exchanged paperwork to let others work in their place not really nurses but imposters. Ever worked with a nurse with very poor skills. Just read the BNE for Texas imposters notices.

Fingerprint me all day long with drug testing all the time. I have had to submit my fingerprints for Texas concealed handgun permit and I absolutely know that that needs to be done. There is a lapse in criminal records that communicate in foreign countries and the USA but this is a good tool for a database. Crap nursing managment can't report your fingerprints but I can report a nurse for poor practice and have a method to ID this nurse and get them out of bedside care.

Stop false ids and imposters.

The PYXIS that has fingerprints for ID is out there already. Wonder how long and what kind of storage is used for my fingerprints?

well, ladies and gentlemen. what will you do when the next thing they ask for is your dna? privacy is a big issue for our patients, but not for us??

you should not take this lying down. but of course, being the wimps that nurses are, we will all just take it lying down.

here is more that is going on in the big house in dc:

read on my brothers and sisters in the healthcare professions. you think you are screwed now? two floors too much for you to manage there mr/ms rn? looks like it will just be getting worse. my suggestion? call seiu and organize before you end up a slave to the corporation.

gutting labor rights for nurses -- and millions of others

by nathan newman

this week, nurses are rallying across the country to protest likely decisions by the national labor relations board that would declare hundreds of thousands of registered nurses (rns) to be "supervisors" under the law and therefore stripped of any protection under federal labor law. if these rulings go as expected, those rns could be fired at will if they say anything positive about unions or are even suspected of being in favor of unions.

the core of the problem derives from the 1947 taft-hartley act which denies labor rights to "supervisors", meaning that anyone deemed a supervisor can be fired at will if they say anything nice about unions or try to take action to support unions in their workplace.

once upon a time, it was generally understood that a supervisor was someone who had some degree of power to hire and fire those below them, but the in a series of decisions, the courts and nlrb have expanded the meaning of supervisor to mean people who, because of their expertise, direct the actions of other employees in some way. now, originally "progressionals" were specifically designated as retaining their right to unionize, but increasingly any professional actions that involve directing other workers actions essentially guts that protection for professionals' right to organize.

back in the 1990s, the clinton-appointed national labor relations board had made a strong pro-union ruling in kentucky river community care, stating that where nursing professionals had no power to discipline, fire or hire other employees, rns overseeing nursing homes using "ordinary professional or technical judgment in directing less-skilled employees" would not be classified as supervisors since they were exercising their judgement for the benefit of patients not employers.

but the supreme court in 2001, by a 5-4 split vote between conservatives and liberal justices, overruled the clinton nlrb and barred unionization by that group of registered nurses with even nominal oversight of other nurses. so the question became what would happen to the right of rns not in nursing homes but in hospitals where their authority is even more restricted. a limited bad ruling would deny labor rights to lead rns, known as "charge" nurses, who oversee other nurses, but many anti-union employers and management attorneys are pushing for a ruling that would deny labor rights to all rns.

and here's the kicker-- once a group of nominal "supervisors" lose their labor rights and can be threatened with being fired, they are forced to become anti-union shock troops to spy on other employees and undermine unionization by other workers. so not only could this kind of decision threaten unions for rns, it threatens the labor rights of workers throughout the health care industry.

this is all part of a trend where the nlrb and the courts, without any legislative change, have been overturning decades of rules to deny workers rights to a wide range of employees previously protected under the law. this american rights at work memo outlines additional attacks on labor rights by the bush nlrb in recent years:

july 2004: graduate teaching and research assistants were deemed students and not employees, making them ineligible for [labor law] protection.

september 2004: the labor board determined that disabled workers who receive rehabilitative services from employers should not be classified as workers and are, therefore, ineligible to form unions under the protections of federal law.

november 2004: employees of temp agencies were barred from organizing with regular employees without both employer and agency permission.

this is on top of a range of other rulings that have weakened protections for workers still covered by labor law but now subject to be fired if they stand up for their rights in the workplace.

but this attack on rns as nominal "supervisors" could lead to one of the largest number of workers stripped of their labor rights in modern history. it's not surprising that this attack is coming now, as the health care industry has become one of the most successful areas for union organizing in recent years. as california nurses association (cna) director rose ann demoro has said:

"corporate hospital employers also want to roll back the progress of a predominantly female work force which has finally begun to win the compensation and retirement security commensurate with their expertise and education after years of low pay and substandard benefits and pensions, and return to the days when nurses had few rights at the bedside."

so this is a dangerous attack on workers in the health industry, but the anti-union right-wing knows that a ruling against nurses could cascade through other workplaces as employers strategically hand nominal supervisory roles to various workers to strip them of their labor rights. it's typical of the quiet but steady legal assault on workers free speech and right to organize in american workplaces.

* * *

nathan newman is a lawyer, policy analyst and longtime community and labor activist. he is policy director for the progressive states network, a nonprofit that supports state legislative campaigns for economic and social justice. he also writes at tpmcafe and at his own long-established blog at http://www.nathannewman.org/log/ and can be contacted at [email protected].

fight ignorance: read buzzflash.com

and a great quote to ponder......

william o. douglas:

"just as nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. in both instances there is a twilight. and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air- however slight- lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness."

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

Skystone - did you even READ this thread?

Yep I read the thread, and I actually was on here very early on.

Obviously you don't get the connection between unions and losing your right to privacy by giving your fingerprints to the state.

Read some history...start with WW II then move on to Stalin and fascism. When you give up your freedoms incrementally, you lose and the state wins. Figure it out. I did not live to be a grandma without learning my history. You should pay attention to world events, which I know is hard when you are working and exhausted and have small kids to raise, or are a new grad, and it's all stressful. That's what we grannies are for. We went before you, and we have seen a lot of stuff. I hope to encourage critical thinking in those few minutes of relaxation that you might have.

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

I happen to be a grandmother myself, and I have been a nurse for 14 years

I WANT to give them fingerprints. I would gladly do that than have criminals from other states showing up here as nurses!

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

As for giving up freedoms, Unions are a whole new way to give up freedoms.

This thread is about fingerprinting, not about unions, but thanks.

Pardon me for intruding..

I haven't read all of this thread....the fingerprinting caught my eye.

My original state of licensure has been fingerprinting ALL people that hold a professional license in that state for years. It's not just nurses...Drs, lawyers, teachers, etc....anyone whose license is granted through the department of professional regulation. It proves you are who you say you are..lol....you have the necessary qualifications to hold that license...and you aren't an axe-murderer.

And yes,there are 2 sides to every coin....pro's and con's. I'll err on the side of public safety everytime....fingerprint me all you want to!!

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.
Pardon me for intruding..

I haven't read all of this thread....the fingerprinting caught my eye.

My original state of licensure has been fingerprinting ALL people that hold a professional license in that state for years. It's not just nurses...Drs, lawyers, teachers, etc....anyone whose license is granted through the department of professional regulation. It proves you are who you say you are..lol....you have the necessary qualifications to hold that license...and you aren't an axe-murderer.

And yes,there are 2 sides to every coin....pro's and con's. I'll err on the side of public safety everytime....fingerprint me all you want to!!

Thank you - that was point many of us were making here.

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