Characteristics of background check findings in nursing students

Abstract

BackgroundBackground 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. PurposeOur study describes the most common and most serious characteristics of BGC findings in nursing students attending large universities. MethodOur 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. FindingsSampled 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. DiscussionFuture research should examine whether background check type or severity indicates a nursing student poses a public risk.