The Daily Outrage: Nurses with criminal records continue to work
Examiner Editorial 10/6/08
SAN FRANCISCO – WHO: The California Board of Registered NursingWHAT: A joint investigation by the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica found more than 115 recent cases in which the board or the state did not act to revoke or restrict licenses of registered nurses until they had three or more criminal convictions.
WHY IT’S HAPPENING: Nurses who were registered before 1990 — about 146,000 in the state — do not have to submit their fingerprints to the nursing board, so they escape scrutiny if convicted of a crime. Also, California does not ask nurses to disclose criminal convictions when they renew their licenses every two years.
WHY IT’S A BAD IDEA: California, which has the highest number of licensed nurses in the country, does not need nurses who have been convicted of crimes including sex offenses and attempted murder to be working with patients, who are a vulnerable section of the population.
1 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Oct 6, 2008
matt: "come on! Give people a chance!! No-body is perfect. If we keep restricting people with criminal records from getting decent jobs, we are perpetuating the rise of the ever-profitable "Incarceration-industrial Complex""