Finding a Job with a Probationary Status License

nurse_wannab · May 5, 2011

It's because it relates to battery, but it was so long ago...it seems like they went pretty easy on you, but I guess not if you can't even secure employment...did you apply to any agencies or addiction clinics? I will going through a similar situation soon. I just recently applied & was denied, I appealed & and have a hearing my SBON soon, just wondering if I will be screwed if I go to the hearing without an attorney?

Tiger747 · May 5, 2011

When I first went before the board to be approved to take the NCLEX, about 50% of those there for what they call "appearances" (such as myself) had attorneys.

In no way would I want to speak for myself! No way. I would either clam up or lose it. I hear about young mothers on here getting batteries for slapping their kids and losing their jobs and their licenses and it makes my blood boil.

I wonder if these long term care facilities will have any trouble taking a dangerous criminal like me in when I become bed rest? I'll be even worse then since I probably won't know what I am doing. LOL Pretty sad when you have to beg for a job cleaning incontinence.

What people fail to understand about battery is that there is a major difference between hurting someone (actual battery) and the law's loose and all-inclusive definition of battery (such as pushing someone or yanking something out of their hand). In my town, even the supposed "victim" now goes to jail on the reasoning that a conflict is-- and I quote--- "mutually combative." The municipality gets double the revenue this way.

The second thing people forget about battery is a thing called "emotional investment." Because you slap your child, or slap your boyfriend when you walk in on him sleeping with your sister, in no way can be extrapolated to mean you will strike my elderly father in a LTC facility. Well, I suppose if you fall in love with him and catch him with the 90-year-old down the hall. LOL In other words, there are extenuating circumstances-- namely passion. That is why we say "all is fair in love and war." Not every aspect of our lives needs to be controlled by the law.

Seriously, I would not even think about showing up before the BON without an attorney. When the town Sheriff can't get a part-time job at a convenience store because of a slow pay ( yep, convenience stores check credit reports), you know you are not living in reasonable times. You need a professional to talk to these people, as most people in a position of authority have the "I got mine" attitude, and they cannot really understand others. In my town, for example, the prosecuter is an ex-con who was pardoned by the governor. Think he would give you a break? Not on your life. Good luck.

nurse_wannab · May 5, 2011

Tiger747,

I totally agree with you! Times are tough enough for everyone out here already, just because we made a bad decision we must be penalized forever? How long have you been licensed & looking for work? I'm confused because I hear many others say that, it angers the board when you bring an attorney? Then others say that I would be a fool to go without one? Is it similar to being in court? Do they question you & present all the facts against you? I just hope I can get a license even with some stipulations...: (

Home Health Columnist / Guide · May 5, 2011

Major metropolitian areas are all tight for new nurses at this time....look outside to more rural areas of your state. Also look to apply for state Borad of Health positions which are only listed on state websites.

Best wishes.

CAnewnurse · May 6, 2011

Ask your friends for referrals. Bring in character reference letters when you turn in an application. Do whatever you can to try and get a job! Good luck with your journey.

Tiger747 · May 6, 2011

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I must say that in my town virtually every place is hiring nurses and there is certainly no shortage of jobs.

I do taxes 6 months out of the year, and many of my clients work in hospitals and nursing homes. I let them all know about my plight and several went way out of their way to try and help me. Additionally, many of my classmates tell their D.O.N.s about me. I am very well liked and respected in my community-- even been a substitute teacher. I was asked to head my neighborhood commitee.

Nevertheless, the interviews do not come. I do not even want a job anymore so much as I just wish I would even get an interview. 3 interviews in 8 months from 150+ applications just does not stack up in an area where nurses are in such demand.

I even went so far as to call the BON and ask them if there was a law or legislation that prevented institutions from hiring someone with a misdemeanor and a probationary license. They said no and that it was up to the employer.

My personal hunch is that lack of experience as a new nurse, a criminal record, and a probationary license is just to much to overcome.

CAnewnurse · May 9, 2011

hey, i was wondering where did you take the nursing courses required for probation?

Tiger747 · May 10, 2011

Hello,

I have no requirements for probation. I have an unrestricted, probationary license.

All I have to do is work as a nurse for 6 months, period.

But no one will give me a chance--- not even a local "slaughterhouse" of a nursing home that cannot keep a nurse longer than 6 months!

I am now looking into truck driving. Since I do not have a wife, I am hoping a male friend of mine (also unemployable) will hook up with me for team driving so I don't have to stay out for weeks straight. LOL

What can you do? My relatives in Germany say my 10-year-old minor misdemeanor would not even be an issue there. They call it "bedroom stuff"-- actually no one's business. America is fast becoming a police state-- even telling you not to spank your child. Evidently, the Bible is full of it when it says "spare the rod, spoil the child."

Had the current laws been in place in the 1960's when I was a child, me and all my friends would have been wards of the state, visiting our parents in prison.

You cannot apply logic to the illogical, or make sense out of the senseless. This is the conclusion I have come to.

Nonetheless, I am trapped here in the U.S. (unemployed people don't have the money to start up overseas), so I have to proactively do something.

If, in fact, my debt is not paid, then society should incarcerate me and feed me and give me access to medical care. Releasing someone who cannot possibly get employment is akin to the Humane Society releasing abandoned dogs-- once they have had a meal--- back on the streets.

What 90% of the nurses posting on here with any kind of criminal background-- no matter how minor-- do not realize, is that they probably cannot get on at a convenience store or Walmart, let alone somewhere as a nurse.

I have a 4-year college degree-- a B.A. in English from I.U.--- and now a nursing license and cannot buy a job. All because of a less than stellar credit report and a 10-year-old misdemeanor. Myself, I cannot make any kind of sense out of this. Unemployed people typically do have a hard time paying their bills. Credit report? Job?

Wow.

FLmomof5 · May 10, 2011

Tiger, I feel your pain....but, much of what you say is not true.

I have misdemeanor theft by check convictions. I was able to get employed...AND by a financial services company!

I was able to get my nursing license in FL and have applied for a SC endorsement....and I have been applying for my first nursing job. Will my history make me ineligible? I don't believe so....but, it is possible and I will post here as soon as I get my first nursing job.

You *are* correct about the legal system in some regards to what is happening out there. If the laws were the same when I was growing up, both of my parents would have been convicted of crimes. Yet, they are now enjoying their retirement: my mom from 35 yrs of nursing and my dad from being an officer in the USAF. Liberals have gone too far in "protecting" children and conservatives too far in continuing to punish a 'convict'.

I found out that if you "strike" your child (regardless of age) anywhere but on the buttocks (in the State of FL), then you are committing battery/child abuse! Wow! Now, if they actually arrested every parent that has hit a child anywhere else, then we could simply put barbed wire around the state and the whole place could be a prison! :devil:

If you convict someone, they serve their time...then you won't let them live in your neighborhood (any neighborhood), won't hire them, etc... what choice do we as a society leave them with??

Life will be a bit more challenging when you have a conviction, but it doesn't mean that you cannot succeed. Think positively. You can do this! :twocents:

Tiger747 · May 11, 2011

Thank you for the encouragement!

I was actually hired by one nursing home, the D.O.N. really liked me; but, when she saw my probationary status she said, "I don't know if I can hire you." She told me it was 100% up to corporate. They were a privately owned nursing home (owned by the employees). She was very upset, visibly so, as she thought it very unfair, seeing as how I have been a substitute teacher as recently as 2007, and head my neighborhood committee. She saw me as a responsible, stable member of the community.

I would not be able to substitute teach now. A lot has changed even since 2007. I do know that no convenience store in my town of 50,000 will hire anyone with a slow pay on their credit report-- corporate policy.

I believe many would give me a job, if it was up to them. I have worked at H&R Block since 2005. So you might say I am "grandfathered" in there. But now they probably would not hire me as just this past season they ran background checks on all new hires-- a first! LOL

Thanks again for your encouragement; I pray you are right. Thanks again. :coollook:

alexiscc · May 22, 2011

Wait till hunger and homelessness riots start here too much injustice.

They want to throw people out on the streets, take away their homes and life, because of minor conviction many years ago?--huh, you say even convinence stores started the witch hunt? Forcing people into unhealthy, toxic occupations to work somewhere at a factory, destroying own health....

That's why I went to school for engineering, having a misdemeanor conviction for spitting on a person 3 times bigger than me who assaulted me by grabbing me and bruising me, while I was a small, fragile girl, I figured I don't want to live in constant fear of government and explain to every fool and hater why I had a problem and let them dig in my past, poison my life and leave me out of work after putting me down. This, however, made me a very bitter person--having to go for profession I have no love whatsoever (have talent for it, just no love). Now I'm wondering if I should find a way to leave the country...