Fingerprint First! Know your Identity History

Accurate Biometrics recently submitted an article to AllNurses.com. The information shared with nursing students is important to young professionals across a wide variety of careers, and so we're sharing the AllNurses article this week on our blog. 

Accurate Biometrics has been assisting the medical community with fingerprinting for nursing licensure for 16 years. One of our nursing student clients experienced an unfortunate situation that prevented her from getting licensed to accept a job offer that was waiting for her after graduation. Her compelling story is worth sharing in hope that others can learn from a simple but costly mistake.

This summer a woman, we’ll call her Mary, drove many miles to our corporate office in Illinois, to get results of an FBI Departmental Order 556-73, Identity History Summary Report. This report allows an individual to request a copy of their record on file with the FBI to determine if the information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. Mary is a nursing student who had completed a nursing program in her thirties, just finished her RN licensure program, and even had the good fortune of having a nursing job waiting for her upon graduation. Imagine Mary’s shock when she was denied a state nursing license because she had a disqualifying criminal record in another state that prevented her from getting her professional nursing license.  

Mary had no idea why her license was denied and contacted us after she learned that Accurate Biometrics could assist her in learning what was on her fingerprint-based background check. She was in absolute horror when she viewed the results of the FBI “Self Check Report” in our office. Mary had a “open” record in another state from her early twenties from a seemingly minor event that she had completely forgotten about. She had no idea that there was something looming on her record waiting to throw a roadblock in her path to a bright future. Seeing the impact of the realization that she had no job, a career in jeopardy, and the possibility of being unable to make full use of all her years of schooling was hard to bear.

For a low cost fee, Accurate Biometrics can help nursing students check the status of their criminal history record through an FBI Departmental Order. The FBI Departmental Order is the formal request that allows an individual access to all criminal history on file with the FBI.  No matter what state you are licensed in, if the states requires a fingerprint-based background check, chances are that your fingerprints will be run through the FBI CJIS database. A simple fingerprint search through a Departmental Order will give you peace of mind to ensure that you do not have a disqualifying criminal conviction that would prevent you from being licensed in your profession.

In Mary's case, if she had conducted the FBI self-check before entering her nursing program, it’s most likely she could have had her record expunged and eliminated the stress and heartache of a career setback that will cost her untold time and money to get back on track. 

Accurate Biometrics, based in Illinois, has been fingerprinting nurses for licensure for over 16 years. We have the expertise to help you navigate through the Departmental Order 556-73 process to ensure you have a clear record to work in the medical field. We currently process fingerprints for the State of Illinois and the State of California, including out of state and foreign submissions.  

Peggy Critchfield
President
Accurate Biometrics

Please contact through our website for more details: 
info@accuratebiometrics.com