I am looking into the legalities of transitioning on my careers in psychiatry. I have always had to fill out a background check for any job with in the healthcare field. On the form it says to include and former names you have gone by. My fear is if I take a year off before going to grad school to transition anywhere I work at prior or after transition will immediately find out I was not born male. Has anyone ever been through this or have any information on this topic?

Also, has anyone had to change the name on their educational degrees or health care licenses? I am going to have to do that as well. Thanks in advance if anyone has any info!

Brady

Hi Brady,

As far as I know it should not be a problem.  My therapist is FtM and transition in his profession.  Most background checks are criminal and maybe financial.

But it is MHO.

Janet

I haven't had any background checks since changing my name however you could always
laugh it off and say yeah my parents thought giving me a female name would be cool! :S

I still need to change my name on all of my GCSE & GNVQ certificates too.. Employers dont
really need to see them but just in case!

I've changed my name on 2 professional licenses but didn't bother with the degrees because I'm 20 years out of school.  I may at some point do that, though.

Jay

My job requires a clearance, but so far I have only gone through a name change so my experiences may only be a portion of what you want info on. 

From what I have been told from various sources (most I would trust), it's when you hide your previous names that the questions will arise.   Despite you wanting only to move on with who you are, those doing the background checks more times then not will see it as you hiding something.  If you list prior names then when they do the checks they will see you are being honest with them and that is always in your favor.

I don't know how detailed your checks would be, but in my line of work they will actually talk to people in your past, so if it gets that personal, you may wish to tell people whats going on and tell them that people you use as references or as family may (or are) not aware of your transition.  The interviewers in most cases are contracted folks and will make sure they are sensative to your issues.  The few I have spoken to were really nice people, though I was being questioned about people who have worked for me in the past....but they were really nice in giving me info on how their jobs work as far as them being contracted by a company to perform the checks.

Hope that helps.  My advice is don't hide anything because it could hurt you more then help.

I know I can't hide my former names, but I also don't want to be the freak that everyone knows. I work in psychiatric nursing so people knowing could have a negative impact on my ability to help people. It is pretty obvious based on the differences on my names that I had a sex change. I live in a state where sexual orientation and transgender individuals are not protected by law against discrimination and can be dismissed or not given job opportunities due to it.

I am planning on taking a year off after receiving my second BS degree at the end of this year to transition, but I am afraid I will not be able to get a job in the nursing field due to my transition. I will need to change my name, two degrees, and nursing license to so this. Also I will have to apply to grad school during that year so that will be interesting. I am hoping if through the background check they find out there is some way of stopping them from telling everyone and from not giving me a job.

I am also wondering whether or not I have to have full bottom surgery to have my birth certificate changed. I have read my specific states laws regarding sex change on birth certificates and the wording is very non specific.