Overview
SMU contracts with multiple agencies that require a criminal background and drug screening for students to be able to participate in rotations at their sites. In response to these requirements, student criminal background check and drug screenings are conducted within a standardized process through the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services. Criminal background checks are completed for all students as a condition of student admission. Drug screenings are mandatory upon admission for all pre-licensure nursing students on all campuses and are conducted on an as-needed basis for students from the DPN, DPM, DPT, MPA, MOT programs as required by their assigned rotation agency sites. Both a criminal background check and drug screen are required upon admission nursing programs at the Sacramento Regional Learning Center. Information on the SMU criminal background and drug screen process and compliance standards are outlined below. Both a criminal background check and drug screen are required upon admission for all nursing programs at the Sacramento Regional Learning Center. Information on the SMU criminal background and drug screen process and compliance standards are outlined below.
A criminal background check must be completed by each SMU student as a condition of admission. By contract, SMU’s clinical agency partners require that each student complete a criminal background check prior to their rotation assignment. If students maintain continuous enrollment, they will not be required to repeat a background.
Student reports can be conveniently initiated, paid for and completed through an online vendor (Verifystudents.com - prior to Fall Term 2012; Certifiedbackground.com – beginning Fall Term 2012. CBC reports are typically completed within five to ten working days (depending on the number of residences and volume of information covering a seven year period that needs to be researched). At any time a student can access, view and print his/her completed, confidential report via their online account(s), either through Certifiedbackground.com or Verifystudents.com. The Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services can view the current status of a student’s report online and print a student’s report once it is completed.
A drug screen is required by many of SMU’s clinical agency partners. By the beginning of Fall Term 2012, all newly admitted and current pre-licensure nursing students are required to complete a drug screen. All continuing pre-licensure nursing students must complete a drug screen by Sept. 1, 2012 with the exception of DNP and FNP or CM post professional graduate nursing students whose clinicals are conducted only at their existing place of employment may be exempted from this additional requirement. All other students (DPM, DPT, MPA, MOT) must complete a drug screen upon advance notification from their program clinical faculty/staff or program chair. For the majority of clinical agencies, if students maintain continuous enrollment, they will not be asked to repeat drug screening. However, some agencies may establish a different timeframe for their drug screening and it is possible that some students will be required to be screened more than one time.
The student drug screening process is paperless and is completed through three online vendors (Certifiedstudents.com, Verifystudents.com, Questdiagnostics.com Care 360). Students initiate online their screening registration, payment along with lab selection, e-chains and appointments. As a final step in the process students must visit a nearby lab collection site. A Medical Review Officer (MRO) consults with any student that tests positive to verify if there is a valid medical explanation. Complete and accurate results are typically available within 48 hours.
At any time a student can access, view and print his/her completed, confidential report results from their online account(s), either through Certifiedbackground.com or Verifystudents.com.
The Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services can view the current status of a student’s report online and print a student’s report, once it is completed.
Confidentiality
All student background check and drug screen reports are highly confidential. Access to report results is restricted to the individual student and the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services. Student report information is archived in a secure, third-party online database (Certifiedbackground.com, Verifystudents.com, Quest Diagnostics) and can be accessed, viewed, and retrieved as needed.
Criminal Background check report: Due to privacy practices the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services will not release a student’s confidential report to anyone including clinical agencies, faculty or staff. Upon request from an SMU faculty clinical coordinator, the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services will confirm only the completion date and status of a student’s criminal background check.
A student’s confidential criminal background report is their own personal property. Should a student choose to share their background report information with their clinical site, it is recommended that they take care to ‘cleanse’ their report (eliminate personal information such as ss# and address). Due to privacy practices the Office of Enrollment and Student Services will not release this report to anyone including student rotation sites.
Drug Screen Report: All drug screens are completely confidential and available only to the student and the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services. Students can be confident that results will never be viewed by unauthorized sources. The Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services will release a student’s confidential drug screen report to a clinical site only upon request from the student or the student’s SMU faculty/clinical coordinator. The report is released only under highly confidential cover directly to an authorized, pre-appointed individual at the student’s clinical site. This individual has been pre-designated as the responsible party for receiving and reviewing the student’s information.
Student Criminal Background Check (CBC)
The CBC process includes a level one health professions, seven year search of:
- Social Security Number Trace: Confirms a student's true identity and legal employment status
- Residential History
- Felony/Misdemeanor Criminal Conviction Search: the student’s current county of residence as well as any additional names, and/or counties discovered on the Social Security Number Trace.
- All counties of residence in the U.S.
- Seven year county criminal record search (provides convictions of felonies & misdemeanors)
- USA Patriot Act: OIG (Office of the Inspector General) List of Excluded Parties: List of Excluded Individuals/Entities, General Services Administration (GSA) Excluded Parties List, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), Specially Designated Nations (SDN) and Designated Persons Lists (DPL)
- GSA (General Services Administration) Cumulative Sanction Report: Excluded Parties List, Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), Specially Designated Nations (SDN) and Designated Persons Lists (DPL)
- Nationwide Database & Sex Offender Reg.
- Nationwide Healthcare Fraud & Abuse Reg.
Student Audience: all students admitted to SMU must complete a criminal background check.
Timing: A final CBC report takes 5-10 working days to complete from the time a student registers online to initiate the search process.
CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK INSTRUCTIONS
To complete a new criminal background check report:
- Go online, register, pay for and initiate a criminal background check only, click on the following link:
https://www.certifiedbackground.com/cgi-bin/packageCode.pl?company_code=SK10
- Cost is $42, please have a credit card ready for online payment
Your Results:
Your completed, confidential report will be (a) accessible to you through your certifiedbackground.com account (b) automatically received and secured by the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services.
Certifiedbackground.com: 888-666-7788, option 1 (M-Th 5am-5pm, Friday 5am-3pm, Sun 9am - 5pm PT)
If you have already completed a criminal background check through Certifiedbackground.com or Verifystudents.com upon your admission to SMU and you:
- Need to access, view, print your report go online to www.Certifiedbackground.com or www.verifystudents.com (your will need your online account id and passcode)
- Have forgotten your online account id and passcode, have questions or need assistance accessing your report please contact their student customer support as follows:
Verifystudents.com: 800-229-8606, option 3 (M-F 7:30am-3:30pm PT)
Contact Certifiedbackground.com student support: 888-666-7788,(M-Th 5am-5pm, Friday 5am-3pm, Sun 9am - 5pm PT)
If you have questions or are unsure of your drug screen status please contact:
Kathie McWilliams
Enrollment and Student Services
Tel. 510.869.6715
kmcwilliams@samuelmerritt.edu
The DS process for students rotating through SMU contracted clinical facility rotations is a standard 10-Panel Urine Test as follows:
- Certifiedbackground.com screening and Verifystudent.com detect the following 10 drugs:
- 1-Cocaine Metabolites, 2-Amphetamines (Class)AMPHETAMINES (CLASS), 3- Barbiturates, 4- Benzodiazepines 5-Marijuanametabolite, 6- Opiates, 7- Phencyclidine, 8- Propoxyphene /Metabolite, 9 - Methadone 10- Methaqualone.
- All screenings include an MRO Review. Both negative and confirmed positive results are transmitted from the laboratory to the Medical Review Officer (MRO) immediately upon completion of laboratory analysis and Certifying Scientist Review. Negative results are typically returned within 24 hours. All results are then posted for both the student and the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services to review.
Student Audience:
- All newly admitted pre-licensure nursing students on all campuses for all rotations that begin Fall Term 2012 and beyond.
- All graduate, post professional, special status as required by their assigned SMU contracted clinical rotation site.
- All nursing students admitted to programs at the SRLC.
Timing: Typically a final DS report takes up to 5 days to complete from the time the student visits the lab.
DRUG SCREEN INSTRUCTIONS
To complete a new drug screen
For the majority of clinical agencies, if you maintain continuous enrollment, you will not be asked to repeat drug screening. However, be aware that some agencies may establish a different timeframe for their drug screening and it is possible that you will need to be tested more than this one time.
- Go online to register, pay for and initiate your required drug screen click on the following link:
https://www.certifiedbackground.com/cgi-bin/packageCode.pl?company_code=SK10dt
- Cost is $35, please have a credit ready for online payment
- Under the ‘Student Information’ section, in the ‘Student I.D.’ field, be sure to key in your full 9 digit SMU student i.d. number as it is listed on the back of your SMU ID card (upper left corner) and/or your SMU student account statement (include the letter ‘P’ followed by the full 9 digits of your SMU ID number).
- Complete the registration process with your personal information.
- Complete the payment process (cost is $35). Please have a credit card (Visa/Mastercard/American Express/Discover) information ready in order to process payment for your drug screening.
- Within 24 hours you will receive an email from certifiedprofile.com with your e-chain (electronic chain of custody form) registration form attached as a pdf document. Your ‘e-chain’ form has a bar-coded list of authorized lab locations conveniently located near you to select from.
- Please print the form and take it with you when visit your selected lab.
Note: To avoid repeating an abnormal drug screening result, please make sure that you:
- Avoid drinking too much fluid prior to the exam, it will cause a dilute and an abnormal result.
- Screenings indicating abnormal results are sent to a medical review officer, who will contact the individual student directly if they have questions.
Your Results:
When your confidential report is fully completed, it will be:
- accessible to you through your certifiedbackground.com account
- automatically received and secured by the Office of the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services.
- If you cannot view your completed drug screen report within 5 days of visiting the lab and your clinical rotation deadline is imminent, please contact student support as follows:
Contact Certifiedbackground.com student support: 888-666-7788, option 1 (M-Th 5am-5pm, Friday 5am-3pm, Sun 9am - 5pm PT) or email: customerservice@certifiedbackground.com
If you have already completed a drug screen throughVerifystudents.com and:
- Need to access, view, print your report, go online to www.verifystudents.com (you will need your online account id and passcode)
- Have forgotten your online account id and passcode, have questions or need assistance accessing your report please contact their student customer support as follows:
Contact Verifystudents.com customer service at: 800-229-8606, option 3 (M-F 7:30am-3:30pm PT)
If you have questions or are unsure of your drug screen status please contact:
Kathie McWilliams
Enrollment and Student Services
Tel. 510.869.6715
kmcwilliams@samuelmerritt.edu
