CastleBranch at Drexel: the tracker behind your clinical clearance

CastleBranch does two jobs for CNHP. It orders the screenings Drexel requires, and it stores every compliance document in a single profile the Clinical Compliance team can review. Drexel's compliance site names it as the home for your background checks, child abuse clearance, fingerprint results, drug tests, immunization documents, certifications and training certificates.

It is also where Drexel confirms your nursing license: the certifications page says RN licenses will be verified via CastleBranch. Clearance itself stays a Drexel decision. Your compliance coordinator reviews the profile against your program's list and due dates, then clears you for the term.

Because Drexel's site agreements call for annual background checks along with current immunizations and CPR, you'll return to the same profile each year you're in clinical courses. Treat it as a record you maintain, not a one-time task.

Get the details right on day one. Drexel's compliance page says the state criminal background check runs from the identifying information you enter when you create your CastleBranch profile, so a typo in a name or birth date travels straight into your background search.

1. Use your legal nameMatch the name on your government ID and your nursing license.
2. Check every field before submittingAddresses and dates feed the state criminal check, so read them twice.
3. Read the instructions inside the profileDrexel puts the fingerprinting and child abuse clearance steps in your profile rather than on its public pages.
4. Watch for the echainYour drug-test form is placed in the profile a day or two after ordering.
5. Keep your own copiesSave every document you upload, in case a clinical site asks for one directly.

The background portion has three parts: the state criminal search, FBI fingerprinting and the state child abuse clearance. The first runs from your profile data with nothing more for you to do. For the other two, CastleBranch gives you the instructions, and the results come back to you (by mail, in the case of fingerprints) for you to upload.

An old result from a job or an earlier program won't stand in for these; Drexel's FAQ is clear that earlier fingerprinting doesn't count, because the checks have to be run for your clinical rotations. Pennsylvania's portals, fingerprint service codes and mail times are on background checks and clearances, along with what nearby health systems ask for.

Your drug test starts with an electronic chain-of-custody form, which Drexel calls the echain. Drexel says it appears in your CastleBranch profile within 24 to 48 hours, and it directs you to a collection site that works with CastleBranch for a urine specimen.

Wait until the form is showing before you plan a lab visit, since it is the record that connects your sample to your profile. Results post back to CastleBranch for the compliance team to see.

Time the order to your coordinator's schedule rather than the day your profile opens. Some clinical sites want a screen taken within a set period before the rotation begins, so a test done many months early can leave you retesting. The marijuana rule, blood testing and who pays for a retest are covered on the drug screen page.

Most of what you put into CastleBranch is uploaded by you rather than ordered through it. These are the documents Drexel's compliance pages send there:

License verification runs alongside these. Which license Drexel expects, Pennsylvania or a multistate license from your home state, is explained on the RN license page, because Drexel's own pages describe it two ways.

CastleBranch may not be the only place your records need to go. Drexel's compliance FAQ asks for the immunization forms in both CastleBranch and DrexelOne, since the university's immunization requirement runs separately from clinical compliance. Fully online students sit outside that university policy, so ask the compliance team whether the second upload is still expected of you.

A clinical site can add a system of its own. ChristianaCare, Bayhealth and Beebe in Delaware onboard students through Clinician Nexus, UPMC and Allegheny Health Network use myClinicalExchange, and Lehigh Valley Health Network uses InPlace. Those accounts come on top of CastleBranch, and the site may want the same documents again in its own format. The New Jersey and Delaware sites page covers the systems nearest Philadelphia.

A tidy CastleBranch profile only pays off once you have a site to be cleared for. Our placement advisors find the preceptor and clinical site for your Drexel course, then compare that site's onboarding with what your profile already holds, so you learn early whether it wants a second platform, an extra check or forms of its own.

We gather your preceptor's credentials (CV, license, board certification) and name the right person at the site for Drexel's affiliation agreement, in the shape the contracting process expects. Drexel makes the approval call; our job is a file that arrives complete the first time. If a preceptor steps away mid-term, we're on call to find the next one. See how it works for the steps.