Nurse Recruiter requesting current work evaluation. Is that legal?

[onitsudo]

I was recently interviewed and hired for a position in the ER at a hospital down in San Diego. After being interviewed ( in which they gave me a tour of their ER) as well as receiving a call from their unit manager stating they "definitely wanted to hire me", I received a call from the hospital's recruitment manager requesting for my last work evaluation from my current job.

Are they allowed to request for such information? I was under the impression that work evaulations are solely for the improvement of the RN's performance at that current workplace only and that such information was confidential?

Thanks for any help you guys have on this!

[CompassionateLPN]

To the best of my knowledge NO! they are not allowed to make such a request. That is confidential info privy to the org that you are currently working for.

They can call your current employer, with your permission, for a verbal eval or send them a standard eval form for them to fill out.

Maybe it's possible for you to ask their HR to call the other HR and deal with them directly. This way you won't have to get involved and be the one to let them know it's not legally correct to do so.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Unusual at least. May or may not be legal.

The question could be who "owns" the eval & it's content. I'm thinking that since hospital 1 paid for the software or forms, they own it under license & may say it can't be shared with outside entities.

It is private & confidential information and it is really inappropriate to ask. Let them contact your employer & ask for references. That your evaluations were acceptable is really all that matters.