A quick question for all you nurses

[ajstegall]

Hello,

My name is Aaron and I am a pre-nursing student. I have a applied to area nursing schools in Knoxville, TN for Fall 2011. My question is... When I was 19 I received 3 underage consumption charges because I was a stupid brand new college kid and made mistakes. ALL of my charges have been expunged, but I am worried that this will interfere with my future goals to becoming an RN. I am currently a CNA seeking a job. I am also worried about that as far as a background check. Like I said, my charges have been EXPUNGED. Have any of you nurses had a misdemeanor charge and got it expunged before you went to nursing school/got a job in the healthcare field? Did it show up/will it show up on a background check for nursing schools/employment? What do you think about my situation? I am 21 now.. so all of this happened approx. 2 years ago..

[skyblue1484]

My nursing school was very open about who they use for background checks. Call the school your interested in, find out who they use and then run a background check on yourself. That should help ease your mind.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Hi I had a DUI from years ago, nobody cared (I'm in Aust). Do u have 2 have mandatory police checks where u r? Employers are only interested in felonious charges, ie: paedophilia, criminal acts that u were prosecuted for (went to court for). They are not worried re misdemeanors.

And I have always been up front re my DUI and I tell you, nobody cared.

[ajstegall]

Thank you all VERY much for all of your inputs. I feel a lot better about all of this. Everyone makes mistakes and some learn from them and some dont.. but I did and now I have grown to be a lot more of a professional person in my opinion. I am sure I will be fine.

[MrsRN914]

Some people fail to realize that even though your charges are expunged and no recoerd will show on a STANDARD background check, most hospitals/healthcare facilities run fingerprints and then, no matter if ALL your info is expunged, these will ALWAYS show up because fingerprints (at least in CA) are run with the Dept of Justice where ALL of your past info is too. DO NOT put no on an application, even if you are expunged, because it can ultimately get you terminated if they find out.

[LongislandRN23]

I had a similar situation. About 4 1/2 years ago I was with a friend who decided to shop lift! I had no idea and If I did I would have not been with her I was an innocent bystander if anything! Thanks to the justice system I was charged with petty larceny. Anyway I live in NY and my records were sealed. In NY there is only sealing of records, there is no expunged. Since my records were sealed my lawyer explained to me that my fingerprints have been destroyed!, and my arrest unable to be detected. I have had 3 or 4 jobs (non nursing) before nursing school after this incident and they have all done background checks and nothing every came up- crystal clear. To make sure I called the NYS BON before I applied for my license and asked them. There was a question on the license application that stated: have you ever been charged/pleaded guilty of a misdemeanor/felony. The NYS BON said since my records are sealed I should and did answer NO to that question. If the question asked if I was ever arrested I could/would also write NO. So if your records are expunged I would say you should have no problem and most likely do not even have to disclose it to them. You should call your states BON just incase!

[CAnewnurse]

My aunt is an LPN and has a DUI on her record and this hasn't affected getting her license renewed. She turned it all into the board and everything and never heard anything about it good or bad. I think you should be fine. I think misdemeanors are acceptable to an extent...especially since they were expunged, it's felonies that may complicate things.

What state is your aunt licensed in?

[ChristianBranson]

I live in Knoxville, TN as well and am in the same position as yourself. I've contacted the TN BON and have found that they are VERY difficult to get any information from prior to enrolling as a nursing student. With several misdemeanors on my record (all were expunged) and one conviction of a dui (all from over 10 years ago), what I am finding out is that even if something is expunged, you MUST report it to school and the board. They don't really care if the charges were expunged so much as whether you were arrested or not and why you were. You will have the opportunity to write explanatory letters detailing the events that occurred which helps. My only concern with your charges are that they are not that old. It appears, from all the research I've been doing, that the BON looks heavily on the time span since the last charge and the present time. Many BONs want to see a significant number of years having passed since one's last arrest and evidence that such behavior is not indicative of moral turpitude of the applicant at the present time. I believe that you should be fine given much of what I've researched thus far; however, you NEED to admit to these arrests when applying or they will likely come back to bite you. The TN BON has the ability to find out that you were arrested regardless of having a charge expunged or not since they fall under the government. It is your "PUBLIC" record that is expunged. Government entities still have the ability to access your records. Good luck!