J Prof Nurs. 2024 May-Jun;52:86-93. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2024.04.002. Epub 2024 Apr 13.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Background checks are used in nursing education to assess public risk. To date, no study has described the most common and most serious findings in nursing students.
PURPOSE: Our study describes the most common and most serious characteristics of BGC findings in nursing students attending large universities.
METHOD: Our retrospective study describes characteristics of aggregated, de-identified background check data from a convenience sample of 16 US nursing programs set in large universities 2014-2019.
FINDINGS: Sampled programs collected 45,613 background checks, with 1548 findings (3.4 %). Severity of findings included criminal (62.5 %), non-criminal (4.6 %), felony (0.8 %), and other (11.6 %). Severity data were missing from 20.4 % of records. Finding types included substance use (23.7 %), disorderly conduct (8.7 %), property crimes (2.4 %) and crimes against persons (1 %). Type data was missing from 64.3 % of records.
DISCUSSION: Future research should examine whether background check type or severity indicates a nursing student poses a public risk.
PMID:38777531 | DOI:10.1016/j.profnurs.2024.04.002
