Getting into nursing school with misdemeanors

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Specializes in Float pool.

Hello,

I'm currently taking pre recs in hopes of getting into a nursing school in the Atl area. I have been caught with marajuana twice, once wich has been expunged. The most recent one was in he summer of 2011. I have only seen threads about nurses who already have their degree and have gotten in some trouble. Is getting into a nursing school with a misdemeanor harder than renewing your license with one? Please give me your honest opinion. Oh, and I have landed 3 jobs as a Patient Care Technician, and made it past the human resources background check since then.

Thanks you!

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Specializes in Emergency, Tele, Med Surg, DOU, ICU.

You have to go thru a background check. Your offence involves drugs and is very recent. I'm sorry to say that it does not look good for you. Remember, the hospital where nursing students will do their clinical must be assured of your "clean" record. Some hospital won't even let a student with a DUI do their clinical. Talk to your potential nursing school and explain your situation, so you'll know if its possible for you to get in. Otherwise you would be wasting your time doing prereqs for nothing.

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Specializes in Float pool.
You have to go thru a background check. Your offence involves drugs and is very recent. I'm sorry to say that it does not look good for you. Remember, the hospital where nursing students will do their clinical must be assured of your "clean" record. Some hospital won't even let a student with a DUI do their clinical. Talk to your potential nursing school and explain your situation, so you'll know if its possible for you to get in. Otherwise you would be wasting your time doing prereqs for nothing.

You're right, it does look bad for me. But i was thinking that if i am able to make it through nursing school and pass my NCLEX i'll be sure to land a job. Especially if i move to a place where marajuana is legal like somwhere in California or Colorado. What do you think? I've had people tell me that getting into nursing school is the hard part and ive had them tell me that being able to work is the hard part.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

You have to go through a criminal history check to get into school once accepted. Then you need to seek Board approval to sit for boards. Even if you work in a State with legalized marijuana...the nursing board frowns upon it and will treat it like any other substance of abuse. A criminal record is still a record.

Many have gone through nursing school only to be denied licensure.

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