DUI before NCLEX

Athenaray · Apr 1

In MOST states, NOT ALL, but in MOST states, you CAN Take the NCLEX. You have not been convicted of ANY crime or DUI. You have been arrested/charged only. There's a difference. Be very careful in how you READ your state's NCLEX registration/application. Some states ask if you have ever been CONVICTED and theu stop there. Sme ask if you have been arrested and/or charged. You have not been Convicted yet. Additionally, MOST states will still allow you to take the exam Even/IF they ask about your arrest background.

Some states will ask about arrests and or charges and some will make you get an SUD eval Before taking the exam. Very, very few, if any, will say you can't take the exam until your criminal DUI case is resolved in court. So 3 camps here....

1. You can take the exam as the application will only ask about criminal Convictions and this is about 50 percent of states.

2. The application asks about convictions AND in addition, they ALSO ask about charges/arrests of which you Have been arrested and in this case, it goes 2 ways. Some will say you can Still take the exam and some will say, you have to get an SUD eval first, and after the SUD eval, you can tske the exam.

3. Final very rare camp. You can't take the exam until your DUI case is resolved in the courts and I don't know of any states that are like this.

Important, thr BON will find out as you have to disclose it, but if your states application/registrstion onky asks about CONVICTIONS, then you dontnhave to disclose your DUI until yoi get a passing result on your exam and officially become an RN. it's overwhelmingly likely you WILL end up in nurse monitoring for some amount of time. Get a lawyer. Your lawyer has pull here because you got the DUI Before you were an RN, and yes, the BON can still legally make you do monitoring for something that happened Before you were officially a nurse, BUT....lawyers in this case can get your monitoring time shortened because......to your advantage, it happened before you were a nurse.

Finally, understand that someone is looking out for you. You are excited, on top of the world, about to graduate and things are good, and then you get the DUI. Don't look at this as bad luck. Look at this as a gift. Someone is trying to steer you in the right direction and you just had a valuable life lesson that you can grow from and become stronger, or it can tear you apart. I would choose the part about growth and learning from what happened and consider it a gift.

Iwannaknow · Apr 2

JB C said:

In MOST states, NOT ALL, but in MOST states, you CAN Take the NCLEX. You have not been convicted of ANY crime or DUI. You have been arrested/charged only. There's a difference. Be very careful in how you READ your state's NCLEX registration/application. Some states ask if you have ever been CONVICTED and theu stop there. Sme ask if you have been arrested and/or charged. You have not been Convicted yet. Additionally, MOST states will still allow you to take the exam Even/IF they ask about your arrest background.

Some states will ask about arrests and or charges and some will make you get an SUD eval Before taking the exam. Very, very few, if any, will say you can't take the exam until your criminal DUI case is resolved in court. So 3 camps here....

1. You can take the exam as the application will only ask about criminal Convictions and this is about 50 percent of states.

2. The application asks about convictions AND in addition, they ALSO ask about charges/arrests of which you Have been arrested and in this case, it goes 2 ways. Some will say you can Still take the exam and some will say, you have to get an SUD eval first, and after the SUD eval, you can tske the exam.

3. Final very rare camp. You can't take the exam until your DUI case is resolved in the courts and I don't know of any states that are like this.

Important, thr BON will find out as you have to disclose it, but if your states application/registrstion onky asks about CONVICTIONS, then you dontnhave to disclose your DUI until yoi get a passing result on your exam and officially become an RN. it's overwhelmingly likely you WILL end up in nurse monitoring for some amount of time. Get a lawyer. Your lawyer has pull here because you got the DUI Before you were an RN, and yes, the BON can still legally make you do monitoring for something that happened Before you were officially a nurse, BUT....lawyers in this case can get your monitoring time shortened because......to your advantage, it happened before you were a nurse.

Finally, understand that someone is looking out for you. You are excited, on top of the world, about to graduate and things are good, and then you get the DUI. Don't look at this as bad luck. Look at this as a gift. Someone is trying to steer you in the right direction and you just had a valuable life lesson that you can grow from and become stronger, or it can tear you apart. I would choose the part about growth and learning from what happened and consider it a gift.

Thank you so much for your feedback and taking the time to help me! I greatly appreciate that a lot! I'm going to put in my application and Hire a lawyer.
Thank you again!