Fingerprinting Problem...Help!

Nursing Students General Students

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Can someone please give me some advice.

I am in my second semester in the ADN program. We are doing our clinicals at VA Medical Center, and we had to get fingerprinted.

Mine came back (dirty I guess). And I was locked up and (I guess) convicted when I was 18 years old. I am now 27. I am so stressed. My instructors told me that VA is not going to allow me to do my clinicals there, and I will be forced to drop that class, as well as my ohter classes.

So is this really the end for me? I don't know what to do. I have been in school for 3 years, and I will not sit back and accept this as a waste of my time....if I can get some advice.

I have burned a whole tank of gas today driving from one police district to another.

I didn't think it was all that serious. It was a misdemeanor.

I don't wanna say too much. ANy advice?

Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.
I've been in nursing a long time now, and I've never heard of a school requiring fingerprints and doing criminal background checks. That would be considered an unnecessary invasion of the student's privacy because you don't have to pass any sort of criminal background check to go to school. When you enroll in a nursing program, the program is in no way guaranteeing that you will be licensed as a nurse -- just that they will provide the education required to make you eligible for licensure. Every program I've been aware of has made the students aware that they will have to pass background checks to be licensed, and that some past criminal offenses may create problems or preclude licensure -- but those decisions are the responsibility of the BON, not schools.

Now, if schools started refusing to accept students because of their legal backgrounds, that's when you'd see the lawsuits! :chuckle

My school would refuse to accept students based on criminal history. Facilities that receive monies from Medicare/Medicaid are not allowed to have staff or students provide care if they have certain types of criminal backgrounds. If you can't do the clinicals, why shouldn't the school refuse to accept you?

Specializes in er, pediatric er.
I've been in nursing a long time now, and I've never heard of a school requiring fingerprints and doing criminal background checks. That would be considered an unnecessary invasion of the student's privacy because you don't have to pass any sort of criminal background check to go to school. When you enroll in a nursing program, the program is in no way guaranteeing that you will be licensed as a nurse -- just that they will provide the education required to make you eligible for licensure. Every program I've been aware of has made the students aware that they will have to pass background checks to be licensed, and that some past criminal offenses may create problems or preclude licensure -- but those decisions are the responsibility of the BON, not schools.

Now, if schools started refusing to accept students because of their legal backgrounds, that's when you'd see the lawsuits! :chuckle

I live in Tennessee, and before returning last semester, we had to have a criminal background check before strarting clinicals, due to new JACHO regulations.

Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.

Wow! That's weird. We did clinicals at a VA in my area and we didn't have to be fingerprinted. It's also where I precepted in an ICU at the end of my program.

This must be new since 9/11.

I'll bet you that this has 100% to do with the John Ashcrap and the "Patriot Act".

Good luck to you OP. Don't give up!

I live in CA and we had to submit criminal background checks to the school and to all hospitals where we do clinicals.

Specializes in LTC/Peds/ICU/PACU/CDI.

yes, i agree, most people are much different at 18 than what they are five, eight, ten years after that time. maturity & responsibility will do that to a person.

i do understand your plight here & am very sensitive to it. i just want you to look at both sides of the fence.

i'm not...by no means....savy about the law...but i'm thinking that your school has an agreement with this particular va hospital & therefore are bound to their contract. if your school should try to circumvent the va's policies for one person...then the rest of the groups (& future ones) will be loosing their opportunity at doing clinicals there. i don't know where your school is...nor do i have privy to the number of hospitals your fellow classmates have available to them. but it wouldn't be cost effective if students aren't cleared for their background checks for this facility & have to do clinicals at another facility. can you imagine how much they would have to pay that facility...go through the headaches of abiding by their rules as well as paying additional instructors? some schools are about their image & reputation...i know mine was. and there *is* the ethical obligation they have to their other students whom are without criminal history. that's why we have rules & regulations to follow. why didn't you reveal your criminal background before the finger printing? i find it hard to believe that you just *forgot* you've had a criminal record which you ended-up having to serve *six* months of probation!!!! that means you've done six months of checking in with a probation officer and go through some sort of anger management course and possibly do community service. one just doesn't forget that sort of thing...no matter how many years have gone by.

i think your problem isn't that you had a record. your problem stems from not being honest & up front about it in the first place. this my friend is a *horrible* way of learning a life's lession...but one never the less.

my best advice to you is seek-out a lawyer & listen to their advice! perhaps together, you could strategize a plan where you can file an appeal to demonstrate your worthiness by your past performance at the institution. how you've spent $x amount of dollars with said institution & how you'd basically will have to start all over again some place else as most nsg schools won't accept the higher level core courses for transfer. that's how they make their money. i would also check with the sbon before going through the whole appeal process as that might be futile if they wont' allow you to sit for nclex.

anyhoo...again...i'm totally sorry for what you're going through right now. things seem to happen for a reason....i've been told whenever one door closes...another one opens. perhaps this is for the best....you never know what might've happened if say you did graduate, got your license & was accused of abuse. that would be the ammunition to strip you of your license & you could quite possibly go to jail based partly on your previous record. now is the time to get that cleared up so that you can start anew.

good luck to ya ~ cheers!

moe

This must be new since 9/11.

I'll bet you that this has 100% to do with the John Ashcrap and the "Patriot Act".

I agree - this must be a new requirement within the last few years, because it didn't used to be necessary.

The bottom line is the BON -- are you eligible for licensure? If so, then you can proceed with working things out with the school. If not, the sooner you know that, the better, and you can start making other plans. Best wishes.

but i had to answer to something that really caught my eye.

1. i did not be dishonest to myself or anyone else. i absolutely did forget the probation thing. i never had to do community service, never went to anger management, and i barely saw the probation officer ( i don't remember their name, or even if it was a male or female). i consented to taking the fingerprint check as i consent to drug testing, and credit checks, because i never had a problem getting a clearance prior to this, but yet, i never had to be fingerprinted.....if for one moment it would have crossed my mind i definitely would have said something. it took me a few days after being informed of the result, and someone else refreshing my memory, for that day to come from way, way, way back in my long term memory....where it sits with a lot of other things i do not remember doing until something or someone reminds me. maybe i am getting old before time, or maybe i have just been through so much in life....that i have a mind full already. and i did say, it is likely i forgot because at that time in my life i didn't see it as important....but i do now. i just felt offended a little by the statement of dishonesty.

and....as of yesterday, i was allowed to return to va as well as my other classes because i provided them with the clearance, and history.....and also recieved word from the bon that it will not affect me in the future as far as sitting for the boards. i have made a lot of calls, wrote a lot of emails, and i have many people helping me to get past this. and it is definitely a learning experience....one i probably will never forget.

thanks to everyone who delivered words of encouragement!!!!!!!!!

yes, i agree, most people are much different at 18 than what they are five, eight, ten years after that time. maturity & responsibility will do that to a person.

i do understand your plight here & am very sensitive to it. i just want you to look at both sides of the fence.

i'm not...by no means....savy about the law...but i'm thinking that your school has an agreement with this particular va hospital & therefore are bound to their contract. if your school should try to circumvent the va's policies for one person...then the rest of the groups (& future ones) will be loosing their opportunity at doing clinicals there. i don't know where your school is...nor do i have privy to the number of hospitals your fellow classmates have available to them. but it wouldn't be cost effective if students aren't cleared for their background checks for this facility & have to do clinicals at another facility. can you imagine how much they would have to pay that facility...go through the headaches of abiding by their rules as well as paying additional instructors? some schools are about their image & reputation...i know mine was. and there *is* the ethical obligation they have to their other students whom are without criminal history. that's why we have rules & regulations to follow. why didn't you reveal your criminal background before the finger printing? i find it hard to believe that you just *forgot* you've had a criminal record which you ended-up having to serve *six* months of probation!!!! that means you've done six months of checking in with a probation officer and go through some sort of anger management course and possibly do community service. one just doesn't forget that sort of thing...no matter how many years have gone by.

i think your problem isn't that you had a record. your problem stems from not being honest & up front about it in the first place. this my friend is a *horrible* way of learning a life's lession...but one never the less.

my best advice to you is seek-out a lawyer & listen to their advice! perhaps together, you could strategize a plan where you can file an appeal to demonstrate your worthiness by your past performance at the institution. how you've spent $x amount of dollars with said institution & how you'd basically will have to start all over again some place else as most nsg schools won't accept the higher level core courses for transfer. that's how they make their money. i would also check with the sbon before going through the whole appeal process as that might be futile if they wont' allow you to sit for nclex.

anyhoo...again...i'm totally sorry for what you're going through right now. things seem to happen for a reason....i've been told whenever one door closes...another one opens. perhaps this is for the best....you never know what might've happened if say you did graduate, got your license & was accused of abuse. that would be the ammunition to strip you of your license & you could quite possibly go to jail based partly on your previous record. now is the time to get that cleared up so that you can start anew.

good luck to ya ~ cheers!

moe

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