Social and Professional Network
Background checks and the hiring process?
After seeing somebody's "pulse and a patch" quip on another list, I ran across this story: http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/715521.html
Is there a problem here?
It is a generally accepted truism that the best prediction of future performance is past performance. So.....
Accept for a moment my belief, strongly held, that EMS personnel must be completely trustworthy in order for EMS to function. Our personnel have almost unrestricted access to the bodies, property, money, prescriptions, jewelry, etc. of their patients, and often their patients' families, etc. We touch our patients, intimately, on many calls - it's called a secondary assessment (Gary Ludwig pointed this out to us in a recent article). We have access, and use, instruments and substances that if improperly used constitute "deadly force," such as high energy shocking devices (Lifepak trumps taser every time), drugs that make you stop breathing and suppress your inhibitions and memory, etc. We remove patients' clothing without probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed, without a warrant from a judge, and without the presence of a supervisor.
So....if I want to become a police officer in a municipality or county in North Carolina, no matter how small, I must have:
A fingerprint-based nation-wide criminal records check.
A background investigation that will take a trained investigator 40 or more hours to complete, which will reach far beyond the references I gave on my resume.
A home visit with interviews of spouse, significant others, or parents (and maybe to see if there is a meth lab in the closet).
A polygraph examination to determine whether or not I have "forgotten" to report anything negative in my history.
A driving records check.
A physical abilities test.
A drug test (which will be repeated at random throughout my career).
A psychological examination by a licensed professional.
My employer won't have any choice about it (those requirements are spelled out in the state criminal justice certification regulations, which govern every LEO).
Pretty demanding, yes?
OK, why are we any different? Why don't we do this? And why don't our state certification rules demand it of our EMS agencies? Why does our industry have far lower standards for Ricky Rescue than the LE industry has for Barney Fife?
Who should be setting such standards, if we think they are appropriate? State EMS office? CMS-Medicare? CAAS?
I'm thinking the management of the organization in the article might wish that they had weeded those subjects out earlier........
Is there a problem here?
It is a generally accepted truism that the best prediction of future performance is past performance. So.....
Accept for a moment my belief, strongly held, that EMS personnel must be completely trustworthy in order for EMS to function. Our personnel have almost unrestricted access to the bodies, property, money, prescriptions, jewelry, etc. of their patients, and often their patients' families, etc. We touch our patients, intimately, on many calls - it's called a secondary assessment (Gary Ludwig pointed this out to us in a recent article). We have access, and use, instruments and substances that if improperly used constitute "deadly force," such as high energy shocking devices (Lifepak trumps taser every time), drugs that make you stop breathing and suppress your inhibitions and memory, etc. We remove patients' clothing without probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed, without a warrant from a judge, and without the presence of a supervisor.
So....if I want to become a police officer in a municipality or county in North Carolina, no matter how small, I must have:
A fingerprint-based nation-wide criminal records check.
A background investigation that will take a trained investigator 40 or more hours to complete, which will reach far beyond the references I gave on my resume.
A home visit with interviews of spouse, significant others, or parents (and maybe to see if there is a meth lab in the closet).
A polygraph examination to determine whether or not I have "forgotten" to report anything negative in my history.
A driving records check.
A physical abilities test.
A drug test (which will be repeated at random throughout my career).
A psychological examination by a licensed professional.
My employer won't have any choice about it (those requirements are spelled out in the state criminal justice certification regulations, which govern every LEO).
Pretty demanding, yes?
OK, why are we any different? Why don't we do this? And why don't our state certification rules demand it of our EMS agencies? Why does our industry have far lower standards for Ricky Rescue than the LE industry has for Barney Fife?
Who should be setting such standards, if we think they are appropriate? State EMS office? CMS-Medicare? CAAS?
I'm thinking the management of the organization in the article might wish that they had weeded those subjects out earlier........
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joshua Todd on -
We have a psych eval as part of our hiring process. The same 2000 question text and torture session that our police department uses with the same psychologist. I think that it is an important CYA measure for our department to be able to say that we "did everything possible" to identify potential problems before hiring someone. That being said NASA does some fairly extensive psych testing also and they still had an astronaut drive across country wearing a diaper to physically assault another astronaut over a love triangle. While you do need to try you damnedest to identify these people you also have to be aware that these people can slip through the cracks. "IF YOUR MOMMA SAYS SHE LOVES YOU . . . CHECK IT OUT!" We just have to hope that our credentialing/probation process will catch those that fall through.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Kirkwood on -
For sure, the process can't stop at hiring. You've got to have ongoing interaction between supervisors and staff, so that you just might know if somebody if somebody starts to fall off the edge. Maybe that's a topic for another thread!!
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Permalink Reply by Rob Theriault on
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I've heard this before and was quite shocked that any ambulance service (anywhere in the world) would not routinely do police checks on its employees. We are required to have a police check before employment and every year thereafter. I just assumed the same process applied in the U.S.
shocking
Rob Theriault
Paramedic Tutor
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Permalink Reply by Skip Kirkwood on
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Shocked indeed!
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/070209_fox_5_exclusive_dc_fir...
I wonder what the public thinks about that???
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on -
Skip,
The D.C issue is apparently a retention issue, not a hiring issue.
When the chief knows about the acts, the acts occurred after employment, and disciplinary action less-than-termination was issued, it's difficult to blame the pre-hire testing.
You're also talking about a city that elected a convicted felon to the city council.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Kirkwood on
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Pretty closely related, though.....the character and behavior of those that we send in to our citizens' homes in their time of need. And, in a city that claims to have gone from "worst to first" on the cover of our host publication!
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Skip, I don't disagree that this is a public trust issue. However, if the chief can't or won't terminate existing employees for criminal convictions, then there's not much point in upgrading the pre-hire screening process to include components that most systems don't use at all.
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