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Nurse Licensure Criminal Background Checks

The role o state boards o nursing is to protect the publicand ensure that those who arelicensed are qualifed and saeto practice. These state boardslicense nearly 4.2 million nurses,including licensed practical/voca-tional nurses, registered nurses

and advanced practice registerednurses. State boards o nursinghave dierent requirements ordisclosing criminal backgrounds

during their nurse licensure procedures. These include crimi-nal background checks that may be conducted at the stateor ederal level, and may be based on name, Social Securitynumber, fngerprints or by another state-specifc method.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing supports

fingerprint-based criminal background checks as the most reliable

method of determining whether applicants for nurse licensure

have previous criminal convictions.1 

• Thirty-six states require fngerprint-based criminal back-ground checks.• O the 14 states that do not require fngerprint-based

criminal background checks, fve require a state recordsearch or inormation on past criminal history by namechecks and state court records; nine states require sel-disclosure o any criminal history.

• Minnesota is the latest state to require fngerprint-based criminal background checks; it passed therequirement in May 2013.

• In many states without fngerprint-based criminalbackground checks, legislation has been introducedbut not yet passed.

Compared with other procedures to identify past criminalconvictions, ngerprint-based criminal background checks

provide the most thorough information about an applicant,

including convictions across state lines.• In 2008, the Kansas legislature passed a bill requiring

fngerprint screening or all nursing applicants. Finger-printing was implemented in 2009. Since implementation,Kansas has learned that 15 percent o the applicants hada criminal history. O those with a criminal history, 29percent o them ailed to disclose this inormation ontheir initial application.2 

• In Texas, a study looked at the number o nurses disci-plined by the board beore and ater the mandated fn-

gerprint criminal background check. The study consistedo 1,508 nurses. Beore the background checks, 330 nurs-es sel-reported a criminal history. Ater the implementa-tion o the fngerprint checks, within the same group, theboard ound 1,182 applicants with a criminal history. Thedierence demonstrates that criminal background checksare an eective method to uncover past crimes that wereotherwise unreported. Twenty-eight percent o the crimes

were elonies and 62 percent were misdemeanors.3

 • Fingerprint-based criminal background checks con-

nect a unique physical trait with an applicant. Withoutfngerprints, applicants could use an alias to hide pastcriminal activity.

• State-based record searches may not identiycriminal convictions in the other states where theapplicant has resided.

States that adopt fingerprint-based criminal background checks

will need to prepare for implementation.• In all states with fngerprint checks, the applicant bears

the cost o the background check. The cost ranges rom$30 to $75.4 

• Fingerprint-based criminal background checks utilize theFBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint IdentifcationSystem. The FBI is able to crosscheck states to fnd crimi-nal histories that a search o one state alone could miss.5 

• Each state board o nursing decides how to process inor-mation returned by the FBI. In determining whether toissue a license to an applicant, the board will considerevidence-based criteria to assess whether the nurse posesa risk to the public.

• Not all applicants with a criminal history are deniedlicensure. Inormation rom fngerprint-based criminalbackground checks provide each board o nursing inor-mation necessary to make the most inormed decision.

The Council o State Governments adopted a resolution in Decem-

ber 2012 to support fngerprint-based criminal background checks

or nurses applying or licensure. The CSG resolution recommends

the policy to states because, “nurses work with the sick, disabled,

elderly and other vulnerable populations, and it is in the interest 

o public saety to review nurse licensure applicants’ past criminal 

behavior in determining whether they should be granted a license

to practice nursing in a state or territory.” 6

Marina Byrd, CSG Research Assistant | mbyrd@csg.org

Debra Miller, CSG D irector of Health Policy | dmiller@csg.org

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Table Source:

Fingerprint-Based Criminal

Background Checks for Nurse Licensure

state

fingerprint-Baed criinal

Bakgrnd chek cent

eqired t eqired

only r tate nt ndting nger-

print-baed riinal bakgrnd hek

labaa x sel-Dilre and state erd searh

laka x

rizna x

rkana x

calirnia x

clrad x sel-Dilre

cnnetit x sel-Dilre

Delaware x

Ditrit clbia x

flrida x

ergia x

Hawaii x sel-Dilre

dah x

llini x

ndiana x

wa x

Kana x

Kentky x

Liiana x

maine x sel-Dilre

maryland x

maahett x sel-Dilre and state erd searh

mihigan x

minneta x * Legilatin Paed in 2013

miiippi x

miri xmntana x sel-Dilre

ebraka x sel-Dilre and state erd searh

eada x

ew Haphire x

ew Jerey x

ew mexi x

ew Yrk x sel-Dilre

rth carlina x

rth Dakta x

ohi x

oklaha x

oregn x

Pennylania x sel-Dilre and state erd searh

hde land xsth carlina x

sth Dakta x

 enneee x

 exa x

utah x

vernt x sel-Dilre

virginia x sel-Dilre

Wahingtn x sel-Dilre and state erd searh

Wet virginia x

Winin x sel-Dilre

Wying x

1Information based on correspondence from the National Council of State

Boards of Nursing to The Council of State Governments, May 2013.2Blubaugh, MSN, RN, Mary. (2012). “Using Electronic Fingerprinting for

Criminal Background Checks.”Journal of Nursing Regulation, Volume 2 (Issue

4), 50-52.3Texas Board of Nursing. “Study Conducted on Eectiveness of Nurse Criminal

Background Checks.”See:

http://www.bon.texas.gov/disciplinaryaction/study-cbc.html 4National Council of State Boards of Nursing. “Criminal Background Checks for

Nurse Licensure. Frequently Asked Questions.”5Blubaugh (2012).6The Council of State Governments. (2012). “Resolution Supporting Criminal

Background Checks for Nurses Applying for State Licensure.”See: http://www.

csg.org/2012NationalConference/documents/Resolution%20Supporting%20

Criminal%20Background%20Checks%20for%20Nurses%20Applying%20

for%20State%20Licensure.pdf 

REFERENCES

Information based on correspondence from The National Council of State

Boards of Nursing to the Council of State Governments, May 2013.