For many years, the nursing profession has been facing an extreme shortage, oftentimes inspired by burnout since the COVID-19 pandemic. As recently as 2023, the U.S. saw a shortage of more than 1 million nurses. This difficult situation has created many challenges while recruiting new nurses and ensuring high standards of patient care.
The Kaiser Permanente strike last year highlighted the serious consequences of insufficient staffing, emphasizing the need for more nurses to handle increasing patient loads. This ongoing shortage has created considerable pressure on healthcare systems to speed up recruitment while avoiding rushed hiring decisions.
Negligent hiring in healthcare can be dangerous, with nurse impersonators becoming a growing issue. In addition, hospitals face the potential of serious fines for poor background checks. To uphold trust in healthcare, here at GroupOne Background Screening we believe stringent background checks are a necessity.
Screening Nurses
When hiring qualified nurses, resumes offer insight but, ensuring a candidate’s skills requires a thorough approach. Comprehensive employee screening is vital to maintain quality patient care.
Such screenings will include verified identity, educational credentials, work history, licensure status, and criminal history. With the rising demand for nurses, the temptation to cut corners is significant, but shortcuts can have severe consequences.
Identifying Inaccuracies
Studies indicate a high rate of resume embellishment, with 70% of employees admitting to lying on their resumes. Employee screening, conducted by accredited agencies such as GroupOne, verifies education and employment history, while mitigating risk.
An experienced screening provider will offer security, allowing healthcare systems to tailor the hiring process to their needs.
Screening Programs
Modern screening programs utilized by GroupOne offer great benefits to help healthcare systems manage the current nursing shortage, including:
- Speed: Today’s screening platforms can provide quick turnaround times, allowing healthcare systems to make appropriate hiring decisions without compromising thoroughness.
- Accuracy: Our technologies can aggregate data from multiple sources, ensuring an accurate overview of a candidate’s background.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Our advanced screening technologies can reduce the long-term costs associated with negligent hiring, such as legal liabilities and fines.
- Enhanced Safety: Rigorous background checks ensure that only qualified and trustworthy individuals are hired, maintaining the high standards of patient care essential in healthcare settings.
The Importance of Consistent Background Screening
Despite the challenges posed by the nursing shortage, consistent and thorough background screening can help hospitals maintain the safety and quality of care. Healthcare systems must consider comprehensive background checks as mandatory, even amid the urgency to fill staff openings.
Healthcare systems should prioritize rigorous background checks as the foundation of their recruitment to balance the immediate need for more nurses to fill workforce shortages. Ensuring the integrity of your hiring is crucial to building a trustworthy healthcare system capable of meeting the future demands of staffing.