Study finds many in-home caregivers hired without background screening

A study out of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has found that many nursing agencies recruit people with no experience to provide in-home care to seniors, and they don’t perform adequate background checks on those hires.

The study looked at the qualifications of caregivers who visit the homes of the elderly to assist with daily activities such as dressing and meal preparation. Published in the July 13 issue of the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, the study found that many agencies nationwide fail to conduct criminal background checks or drug testing for new hires. Of the 180 agencies researchers surveyed in the study, 55 percent conducted a federal criminal background check and only one-third of those agencies interviewed administered drug tests.

Although laws vary by state, such caregiver agencies don’t tend to be regulated, said Dr. Lee Lindquist, lead author on the study. Nursing homes, whose services can be funded by Medicare and were not part of this study, are regulated. According to background information in the study, the typical aide is a recent female immigrant, earning $7.25 an hour on average or, for live-in help, $5.44 an hour.

Industry experts -- and common sense -- have long maintained that any business involving the elderly, the sick, and the very young should have stringent, across-the-board background check and drug testing policies in place. 

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Top Lies Job Applicants Tell

Even in this digital age, at a time when employers are using background checks and other employment screening tactics to fact-check resumes and vet job applicants, people are still trying to outsmart employers with half-truths, omissions and outright lies. No one is immune to this problem. Even solid candidates with a proven track record of employability and on-the-job success have been caught lying on their resumes, adding a degree they didn’t earn or omitting a place of employment that didn’t end well. 

Luckily, a thorough employment screening will find all the hidden secrets and weed out the bad from the good. To make your life just a little bit easier, however, we’ve compiled a list of the top ways job applicants misrepresent themselves while seeking employment. 

1. The job candidate provides a false date of birth in hopes of throwing off a criminal records search. Most criminal records are filed by name and date of birth; without that information, a search will be fruitless, or incomplete at worst. 
2. The job candidate gives a false Social Security number, in order to hide places he or she has lived, or try to “prove” he or she is legal to work in this country. 
3. The job applicant omits a previous employer from their application or resume. Sometimes they fudge the dates they were employed before and after that mysteriously missing employer, to close the gap in time. When conducting employment verification, verify dates of employment as well as salary. 
4. Applicant makes up an employer.  It’s astounding, but it happens. Job applicants who have what they consider too long of a gap between legitimate employment sometimes invent an organization or obscure company for which they “worked.”
5. The job candidate includes a degree he didn’t earn. Sometimes this is from a legitimate college or university; other times they might have a degree in hand but it’s from an unaccredited university

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