Pre Nursing Student Needs Help

TazziRN, RN · Jul 5, 2007

No, it's not dead. Your years since will be in your favor. Each case is reviewed on an individual basis by the BONs, you will never know for sure until you get your degree and apply for a license. You will have to jump through some extra hoops in the application process, but hope is not lost. You may not be granted a license because of this but you will never know unless you try.

kittenfan · Jul 5, 2007

Hi there!

I'd call your State Board of Nursing directly. They will be able to tell you in 20 seconds, before you spend years acquiring prerequisites, etc. I wish you the VERY BEST of luck and hope your news will be good.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2007

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:

dioaniki74 · Jul 7, 2007

No, it's not dead. Your years since will be in your favor. Each case is reviewed on an individual basis by the BONs, you will never know for sure until you get your degree and apply for a license. You will have to jump through some extra hoops in the application process, but hope is not lost. You may not be granted a license because of this but you will never know unless you try.

Thank you so much. I'm so happy now. You are right. I won't ever know unless I try. I've have been starting and stopping for years because of this issue. Your answers are extremely encouraging and will be thought of everytime I start feeling unsure again.