Verifying nurse licenses is critical for ensuring compliance with the many laws regarding accreditation in healthcare. As a result, registered nurse verification is often a complex, time-consuming process, especially in the current environment that has left healthcare staff stretched thin. Employers that want to know how to verify nursing license credentials should consider the fact that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is also keeping vaccine mandates a top priority, leaving providers with little time to spend on nurse verification.
Who Verifies Nurse Licenses?
Institutions can perform registered nurse credentialing for job applicants, but individual nurses can also verify their own licenses. For example, Nursys e-Notify provides institutions with real-time notifications of the nurses they hire at no cost. It also offers discipline data from a participating board of nursing. For nurses, a registered nurse license lookup helps them manage their licenses and provides notifications such as license expiration and renewals. Nursys also notifies nurses about disciplinary actions.
Why Do Nurse Licenses Need to Be Verified?
Organizations that hire nurses are required to verify licensure in most cases. In addition to the legal requirement, nursing license verification is also needed to ensure patient safety and correct billing. Healthcare institutions typically perform an RN license search at the time of hire and at periodic intervals thereafter as needed to renew existing licenses and obtain new ones. Each state’s nurse licensure board for nurses has its own requirements for licensing, which can change at any time. As a result, patients can be treated by nurses with invalid or expired licenses, even when the institution performs multiple registered nurse license lookups on each nurse throughout the year.
Steps of Registered Nurse Verification
Nursys
- To perform an RN license search, visit the Nursys website and click the middle button labeled “Look up License.”
- Fill in the name, license type and state in the box that pops up.
- Check the security box and click Search. The website will return all the nurses that meet your criteria.
- Locate the person that you’re looking for, and click the button labeled “View Report” to gain detailed information on them, including their license status.
State Government Portal
- Google phrases that combine your state and the “nursing license verification.” For example, if you’re in Alaska, you would Google “Alaska nursing license verification.”
- Review the search results to identify the desired government website.
- Fill in the form with all the information you have on the person. This should include their name at a minimum, but additional information like programs, license type, and license number will narrow the results considerably.
- Review the search results to locate the person that you’re looking for.
People Search Engine
- Visit the website for a people search engine, such as BeenVerified.
- Fill in the search fields with as much information as you know. These sites accept many types of search criteria, such as name, address, phone number, and email address.
- Execute the search. In addition to registered nurse verification, people search engines provide many details about the person that are relevant when hiring a nurse, including education, criminal records, and social media accounts.
Verify Credentials with KarmaCheck
KarmaCheck makes it easy to verify the nursing credentials of candidates, as well as perform essential background checks. Contact KarmaCheck today for a demo.
