Is bad credit a factor?

[Adams_Mommy_07]

Right now my credit is not so hot (late credit card payments)...I was just wondering if hospitals take this into consideration when new graduate RNs apply for jobs. I will be starting nursing school in the spring... I don't have any bankruptcies or loans that are late or in default or anything like that.

[CrufflerJJ, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I do know that some hospitals (though not all) ask prospective employees to sign a form allowing them to run credit checks on them. I'm not sure what credit-related factors they look at when deciding whether you're eligible for employment.

I doubt that just late payments alone would put you out of the running. If you had multiple accounts that had been turned over to collections agencies, that might be a problem.

[elkpark]

I don't have any personal experience with this (yet!), but I do know there have been some older threads here discussing that a growing number of hospitals are starting to include credit checks in their routine background checks of potential employees.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

It may or may not be a factor: it depends on the institution. And they are the best people to ask for the answer...look at it this way, if they're going to run a credit check on you, they're going to learn what your credit report says anyway. So it's not like you'd be losing anything or revealing some big secret by asking.

In my pre-nursing days, I was still able to get hired even though my credit wasn't great due to late payments. So don't give up hope.