Florida BON and 22 year old misdemeanor

[~Ginger~]

Hi, everybody. I'm a new grad, and just applied for my RN license with the Florida BON. My question has to do with a misdemeanor charge I have that dates back 22 years. I wasn't arrested; however, I was issued a "criminal citation" and had to go to court for possession of alcohol by a person under 21 yo. I was arraigned, and adjudication was withheld, but I was given probation and a 45 day suspended jail sentence. I served my probation and paid all my fines and as far as I know, the case is closed. I haven't had any brushes with the law since then.

My question is this: will this show up on my background as an arrest or as a conviction? In my mind, I don't consider it a conviction, so I answered "no" on my application when it asked if I'd ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor. But now that I'm thinking about it, and poking around on the internet, I'm wondering if I should call the BON and "come clean" and see what they want me to do. I don't want to be labeled a liar, but I don't want to disclose something unnecessarily and make things harder on myself.

I've seen the Florida BON conviction guildelines, and I'm pretty confident that my one little charge from 22 years ago won't prevent me from getting a license; my fear is that not disclosing it will.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

First thing you should do is head to the Clerk of Court to retrieve you records and find out exactly what your record is.

[~Ginger~]

I've checked the clerk of courts online, and my court docket is there.

According to the Livescan information at FDLE, for RN's by examination they run an in-state, name based search through FLDE, and also a statewide and national fingerprint based search through FDLE and the FBI. I paid the $24.00 to run my name through the FDLE criminal history search and it came back with no records. I'm hoping that means I won't get dinged.

[~Ginger~]

So I called the board and explained the situation. The woman I talked with was very nice, and said that we're supposed to disclose anything and everything, even juvenile records. That being said, she looked at my file and said both my FDLE and FBI checks came back "clear", so I really didn't have anything to worry about and it wasn't going to be a problem.