Group one -black list for nurses in dallas

U.S.A. Texas

Published

Has anyone out there been reported as not rehireable? The Chapter One list in the Dallas area is a list of nurses who has been fired and not recommended for rehire. You are not supposed to be reported if you resign and you are supposed to notified if you are placed on the list. Neither of the two are true. I am wanting to know if anybody has fought it and been able to get your name removed from the list. Also does anyone know how long your name stays on the list? I do have a phone # I plan to call next week and hopefully get a few answers. I will let you know if I get anywhere. Please let me know if you can help. :confused:

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Moved to our Texas Nurses forum

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Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.
Your BON is your governing body, right? Information regarding nurses who have committed offences is therefore in their domain. Employment records, however, are a confidential matter between employer and employee. It should be a contravention of privacy to release such info. Nasty, no wonder Texas only gets one star....:D.

Right on. The only "list" that exists in my neck of the woods is the provincial regulatory bodies for nursing (Canadian equivalents to BON) are entitled to make public the names of illegal practitioners who are attempting to practice w/o a license. That's legit. But what is being described in this thread? Defamation, slander... no way that can be legal.

:eek:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
Ah, I see-rather like a credit blacklist. I've seen the impact that can have on a person's life; pretty devastating! Also a bit like the practice of companies to pass your name on to insurance companies, banks, dating oraganizations ETcetera ETcetera. And I shudder to open my spam box!!!! "Enlarge your member", "Hot Media sites" "Great deals on Viagra!" I mean, someone had to have passed on my email address!

Your BON is your governing body, right? Information regarding nurses who have committed offences is therefore in their domain. Employment records, however, are a confidential matter between employer and employee. It should be a contravention of privacy to release such info. Nasty, no wonder Texas only gets one star....:D.

I totally agree. I was not in any way attempting to defend the list, just stating why I didn't believe that there is anything unconstitutional or illegal (yet) about it.

I believe that there is alot on the internet that must be addressed by future regulatory actions. The recent spate of suicides among young teens due to social network postings, for example. And trust me, it is strange for me to say that. I am not at all in favor of bigger government and more laws.

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Sounds like a 'Big brother is watching.' , type thing. Part of our profession is a code of ethics and morals most of us chose to follow when we chose this profession.

Does Group One monitor other employers and workers as well, or just nurses? There are state abuse registries as well as the state disciplinary action websites for professional offenses already in place in most states, I believe. How they manage to stay in business in this economy is what I wonder?

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Sorry to double dip. I will agree their should be a 'Bully" registry both for the internet and workplaces.

That is not what this sounds like at all. Quite the opposite. Really!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

My goodness - it's nice to know how many of you are not planning on relocating to Texas. The traffic in Houston is bad enough already. Let's hope that you keep that mindset because we are being deluged with so many of your colleagues who relocated to find jobs.

We are a "right to work" state - this means that no employer can set up a closed shop which requires all employees to belong to a union... that's all it means. We haven't yet seceded yet, so all other types of US employment law protections still apply.

Group One is pretty much restricted to the DFW area. I have no first-hand knowledge, but from what I understand it is used for ALL types of jobs - not just nursing. Our BON is very effective, but can only regulate professional issues related to nursing practice. There are many other areas of concern to potential employers... all those 'other' things that can cause you to lose your job like insubordination, policy violations, absenteeism, attitude, conflict of interest, theft, etc. If there is any slander or defammation involved, the employer would be liable since that is where the information originates.

Tx may not be the epicenter of lawsuits, but ever since we passed tort reform some years ago, we have lots of malpractice attorneys with nothing to do. So if Group One was botching everything up the way it seems on this forum, I am sure that there would be plenty of them sniffing around - willing to take cases on contingency fees because they would be easy money. I haven't heard anything about that.

A question to those who have been "Group One'd" - were you informed of the process whereby your information would be sent to GO as part of termination process? If not, I think there is a definite issue with 'informed consent' and downright fairness - that does get my dander up.

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Well, that's not quite all it means.:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law#Arguments_for

Sounds like Group One is kind of like a paid union themselves in a way, since you state employers would be liable for defamation if Group One posted something you didn't like, but who has the time, money, not to mention even find a lawyer that would be willing to back you in a right to work state for a wrongful termination case? There's just no real money in that kind of case. I just heard this past weekend a lawyer with his own radio talk show say in a 'will to work state' your boss can get away with firing you for basically anything if they want, e.g. '...if your hair is the wrong color"..., unless it's discrimination and then it better be really blatant.

I'd rather have paid dues than have my career trampled all over after 17 years in the same fine southern medical center.

I'm a native Texan. My peeps are all over your highways and byways. :dncgbby::dncgcpd::bby::bdyhdclp::cool:

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Specializes in PACU, OR.

Thanks for your reply, I find it pretty illuminating, but there are a few points that I find quite interesting.

"Group One is pretty much restricted to the DFW area. I have no first-hand knowledge, but from what I understand it is used for ALL types of jobs - not just nursing. Our BON is very effective, but can only regulate professional issues related to nursing practice. There are many other areas of concern to potential employers... all those 'other' things that can cause you to lose your job like insubordination, policy violations, absenteeism, attitude, conflict of interest, theft, etc. If there is any slander or defammation involved, the employer would be liable since that is where the information originates. "

While policy violations and absenteeism are undoubtedly employer/employee issues, the others which I highlighted are regarded as breaches of professionalism and can thus be addressed by our Nursing Council, so it is interesting that your BON is not involved in such incidents. Where "attitude" is concerned, it is rather a woolly term which can be open to various forms of abuse-personality clashes abound in every workplace, and there exist people in positions of power who would not be above scuttling a former colleague out of spite, if it is indeed that easy to do. As for documented transgressions, these are surely in the employee's file, and most prospective employers can be alerted to a poor employment history when they request a reference. Putting the information in what amounts to the public domain still seems to me to be a contravention of the individual's privacy...

An idle question regarding conflict of interest; here in South Africa, nurses who wish to earn extra money may do so by moonlighting at other hospitals on their off days or in their annual leave. Would this be regarded as conflict of interest? (Just curious.)

I can see that this Group One must be a pretty effective deterrent-toe the line or you're out-but what about people who go through a bad patch in their lives, wake up later and want to pick up the pieces of their lives and put them back together? Denying them the right to work and prove themselves is a dreadfully cruel punishment. What would you suggest for someone in that situation? Is there perhaps a time limit for such information to remain on that list?

The biggest problem that I can see is that in the case of innocent people landing on this blacklist, it would be almost impossible for them to prove their accusers false. I wonder how many times that may have happened, and whether the victims just moved away to another area, rather than contesting it.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

The problem with "black lists" of any type is that - even if the intention of its creation is legitimate - some percentage of people will be on the list due to totally false allegations made by somebody who didn't like them for one reason or another.

If this list provides no mechanism to challenge one's placement upon it and if it has no sunset limitations then it sounds ripe for abuse.

Sure, front a $20,000 retainer and *maybe* a lawyer can help you... maybe... at $350-500/hr... pretty tough to afford for a $35/hr nurse.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
I don't know much about the American constitution but any "list" that denies a person the right to work is surely unconstitutional?
Their presence on the list is not denying them the "right to work." Regardless of which, no such "right" exists.
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Specializes in PACU, OR.
Their presence on the list is not denying them the "right to work." Regardless of which no such "right" exists.[/quote']

I understood OP to be referring to those on the list as being "not rehireable", although I assume such people can move to other areas and seek work.

Is there no clause in the American Constitution that defends an individual's right to support him/herself and his/her family? I would have thought that was regarded as a basic right....

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Specializes in Urgent Care.
Right on. The only "list" that exists in my neck of the woods is the provincial regulatory bodies for nursing (Canadian equivalents to BON) are entitled to make public the names of illegal practitioners who are attempting to practice w/o a license. That's legit. But what is being described in this thread? Defamation, slander... no way that can be legal.

:eek:

Defamation and slander are legal terms that refer to making false and damaging statement about a person. I can't imagine that everything on this list is accurate. I am surprised they have not had any big lawsuits for something they got wrong, or a vengeful manager but up somehting not so perfectly documented.

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