Pre Nursing Student Needs Help

Hi, dioaniki74!

This is a question that is asked so frequently of the state boards of nursing that many of them have put out some kind of response on their websites. Much depends on what the state nursing law is in the state where you live. It may also depend on whether your conviction was a misdemeanor or a felony. I would recommend that you go to the website of board of nursing of the state where you now live. You can get a link to it from here on allnurses. Go up to the tab bar and click on the downward arrow next to "Links", then click on "Boards of Nursing". Find your state and click on the links. When you get to the state site if you are not already in the Board of Nursing website, look for a link to the Board of Nursing. Then, look at the home page closely. Some will have this information buried in a page of Frequently Asked Questions. Some will have a clearly marked link regarding prior criminal convictions. If you can't find anything, you will be able to get an address and phone number so you can contact the board. Just a note. . .it takes them a long time to respond to letters. You can often find a link to the actual nursing law on many of these sites. If you go to the law citation use the "Find" command on you Edit bar to search for a word in the document you are looking at such as "conviction" or "felony" or "misdemeanor".

The boards these days want to know about all prior convictions. It's even worse if people deliberately don't report them in their applications for a nursing license and the board discovers a record. They consider that perjury. A clean record for the past 15 years says a lot about you.

If you don't have the paperwork from the court case and everything else that went along with it you might try to get it, but 15 years later it's probably been shredded. The state board will ask you to submit an explanation and any paperwork, such as pre-sentence report or probation reports, you have to explain a prior conviction along with your application for a license. Those documents tell a more complete picture of the entire situation. Just wanted to give you a heads up on this. It helps the licensing process go faster. Also, don't be a martyr and feel like you need to purge yourself and reveal this information about your past to everyone when you get into nursing school. Keep it private and to yourself. It's no one else's business but your own.

Good luck with your future plans.

You might want to check out the Student Nursing Forums on allnurses. You can get to them by clicking on the "Students" tab above.

Welcome to allnurses! :welcome: