Finding A Job with a Misdemeanor Battery Conviction

[chicagornstudent]

Hi everyone, I am an undergraduate student who has just been accepted into my school of nursing, but due to an open criminal case I have had to delay my acceptance. If worse comes to worse and I am convicted of this this crime (misdemeanor battery), which I did not commit, I would like to know if it is even worth going through the two years of nursing school. I am at the top of my class with a GPA of 3.981, and have never been in trouble before in my entire life. I am simply posting to get feedback from anyone who has ever been in my shoes or anyone in HR that might have any advice. Will any hospital or even private health care companies give me a chance? If you have any advice or input, I would love to hear it. Thank you and god bless.

[llg, PhD, RN]

My hospital (a children's hospital) looks at the details of each case to make a hiring decision ... but almost never hires anyone with a history of violence. Depending on the details in the case, we might not even allow a student with a history of violence to come here for nursing school clinical rotations, which might prevent someone from graduating.

I wish you the best of luck with your case ... but I urge you to talk with your attorney and do whatever he/she advises you to do -- and try to keep a conviction of violence off of your record.

Also, if you do end up with a record of violence ... talk with the clinical facilities that you will need to go to for your school clinicals before you invest in a nursing education. You wouldn't want to get half way through school and then not be able to finish because of being barred from clinical. (But as I said, my hospital considers each case separately on it individual merits -- so a lot depends on the details of your case.)

[chicagornstudent]

Thank you for replying, and I have talked with my advisers and attorney about what the next steps should be, but seeing how the case is still on going, it seems I am stuck waiting.