Criminal Background Checks

Don't have a complete list but I know quite a few of schools require background check for clinical component of 3rd and 4th year before you get hospital priviledges.

 

U of Iowa had me fill out the background check release form when I turned in my secondary! I'm sure there are many out schools that will do the same thing once a student is enrolled!

 

Umich

 

The AAMC has officially reccommended that *all* medical schools conduct background checks of medical students. Every year more schools do this. I would expect that by the time we graduate, all (or most) medical schools will require this. The AAMC reccommendation was strongly worded, and lots of schools are sympathetic to background checks, so it is quite likely that background checks may be implemented even sooner, depending on your location.
I think it is a good thing. The medical professions haven't been doing enough policing of themselves. Also, how sad would it be if you got into school, racked up a lot of debt, then could never finish your clinical work or your residency b/c of a criminal record.

 

USUHS processes applicants for a military secret clearance, which involves various checks.

 

Wisconsin state law requires a "caregiver" background check, which includes a criminal background check. Medical students qualify as caregivers under the law.

 

It is kind of odd that medical students weren't necessarily screened but all hospital volunteers are. Its about time there is a universal requirement for a background check at the admissions stage. Any school that fails to do this will probably suffer very severe repercussions.

 

I've been screened so many times for that.....I recently filled out an app that said to list all the other times I'd been previously screened. I didn't even know where to begin.

 

what were you applying for (if you don't mind me asking)? That is a weird question.



Additonally, I never had a background check (to my knowledge) for volunteering and I've been to 3 different hospitals in 3 different states.

 

They made me fill it out when I volunteered in a hospital. I think it was just a general "volunteer" application and not for any particular position.
The hospitals you volunteered at scare me. Anyone could volunteer in a pediatric ward and that is just frightening.

 

Ditto for Iowa, and they remind you of it once you are admitted. Apparently my arrest in their ped mall wasn't sufficient enough to warrant a rejection!

 

Unless it was in the app and I overlooked it, I know for at least one I didn't fill out anything. But the other I did a whole formal application. This was also over a year ago so I'd have to check. Usually there is a consent form for that, and I don't remember signing one but hey, maybe I did.

 

Here's a partial list - being a counselor for a junior high camp, volunteering at a hospice, applying for a job as an ER tech (maybe more than one background check there), applying to get sponsored as an EMT, and then at all three places that I applied for an EMT job. So, that's at least seven different times.

Darkside and I both live in Wisconsin though - if you're somewhere else, it may well be different.

 

Background checks are just a resource wasting piece of "feel good" that costs the student resources while failing to achieve anything.

I personally know of a physician practicing in a major metro area who physically assaulted and then shot at his pregnant wife. They are, of course, now divorced. He was tried and convicted for multiple felonies. In addition, this individual has a serious problem with alcohol yet in spite of all of these issues, he still has a license to practice medicine.

Background checks are the answer. Sure.

If you believe that, I have the Brooklyn Bridge for sale cheap.

 

I think that student criminal record checks are probably more effective than you think. The specific example you gave is likely an older physician, who didn't have legal problems until after he became licensed. I'm guessing it would be harder to take a license away from a physician who has been out practicing for a while. It's easy to tell a med student or pre-med applicant to get lost.

 

Additionally, I'm sure that if you searched that particular state's licensing board, this was addressed at some point in time. Just because someone commits a felony doesn't mean they will have their license taken away (which is often the case in the way of doctors - some blame the "politics" and honestly from what I've heard in the news, I can believe it).

But do a search on it if you really want to find out. I really find it hard that the medical licensing board turned a deaf ear (or at least didn't have a hearing on it).

 

Hmmm, peculiar. I had to get fingerprinted by some state agency at my own cost ($10! That's what I get for living in an impoverished state) at an office off-site and then they went through my record - I'm glad they found out I beat that pesky bed-wetting problem at a young age. I've got a freaky foreign name so it's easy to tell I'm evil, but everyone had to get it done: it's state law.

 

how would it look if you were arrested for misdeameanor but never convicted, were acquitted, and had your record sealed?

 

I carry a top secret clearance for my job. I'm not worried about being able to pass a background check for med school... quite the opposite. Having another entity run a background check on me is going to raise flags with the DoD, and I'm sure I'll have a visit from a DSS agent in the next few weeks asking me to explain what is going on.

 

i thought this was cool, even though it was a pain in the ass. having to download that program off the internet, seeing the department of defense seal on everything and the words "top secret clearance" haha.. makes you feel like a CIA agent or something

 

Are you joking?! Acquitted means you're completely off the hook. Doesn't even matter that your record is sealed, you're fine. Boy, my situation would sure make you feel good about yourself. I was recently arrested for DUI, and in addition, was charged with assaulting a police officer.

I've received a lot of great advice on SDN and I really appreciate it, but i feel there is a tendency for people to say that once you get a conviction you're screwed and that it's hopeless. It's not true. I've been talking with a lot of people about this, and i've learned that people with full-out convictions get accepted to medical school all the time. Recently, and to top schools. (In all cases though, it's only been 1 conviction). I think that there's just a lot of straight-edge people on SDN who've never known anybody that's gotten into trouble; they hear the word conviction and it just sounds absolutely foreign to them. No offense! Don't get me wrong though, i'm shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to make sure these convictions don't come thru. Well, my parents are...

 

well i'm glad mommy and daddy are there to bail their baby out.

 

i know a guy with 2 felonies on his record who is a 3rd year now at a decent u.s. allopathic school... doing well too.

 

Thanks for the info. I read your previous post about your situation. My friend got a DUI in rural city with tough as nails judges, he got it completely cleared. I was the passenger when it happened, i bailed him out and testified for him. PM if you want to talk.

Alex