fartjohnson

Hi, I just want to say - I've heard of people with more than one DUI getting a license in Illinois. Lawyer up, go through with the court proceedings, and then talk to the BON. The best advice I could give you would to be totally forthright with them. The background check they conduct is far more extensive than the background checks conducted by employers, so your chances of hiding anything from them are slim. Even if the charges get dropped to reckless driving, they may still be able to see that you were arrested for DUI. I'm not 100% sure, so consult with an attorney that specializes in professional licensure. I speak from personal experience here: I was arrested for petty larceny when I was 13. I wasn't convicted--I never even went to court for the matter. I had totally forgotten about the experience when I went to apply for my license. In the meantime, I had secured a nice job .. we were just waiting for my license to be issued in order to begin. Well, I received a letter from the BON stating that their background check had revealed an arrest for larceny dating back to 2001 and that I needed to explain the circumstances of this arrest before they would consider issuing my license. I wrote a letter and waited for their decision. 2 stressful weeks later I was issued my license. Never in a million years would I have thought that this arrest would come up. I always thought juvenile records were sealed once one became of age, nevermind the fact that there was no conviction. Please learn from my story and don't try and sneak anything past them. Best of luck with your court proceedings and licensure.

If you stain your otherwise-fresh white sheets with a little blood, grab a bleach wipe (the ones found in C.Diff rooms--not the CHG wipes that are more common) and rub it until that stain comes out. That'll save you from having to change the whole bed out

There's almost always administrative work (audits, policy review, filing, etc) that's been piling up because nobody wants to do it. This might be available for you while you're on light duty but I'm not sure your employer would be amenable to keeping you on light duty for months at a time. More importantly: you're 28, you have serious back issues, and you're working in a field that is notorious for being rough on the lower back. Start preparing to take your career in a different direction NOW! Your back will get worse if you continue to work on the floor--period. Look for something with zero physical labor like case manager or nurse educator and work towards landing your first job in that role. Good luck

If I know that the next nurse is going to be significantly late (eg: 20+ minutes), I'll write out report on the Kardex along with my phone number if he/she has questions. Works out well for all parties involved. May not be an option for you but it's worth some consideration IMO

In an attempt to reduce our CLABSI rate, my facility has prohibited us from drawing blood for routine blood work from central lines. We are only allowed to do so with an MD order, and the nursing supervisor on duty is supposed to be the one to do it. Well, I looked around for research supporting this practice (ie: that reducing the number of blood draws from CVCs will reduce CLABSI rate) but I couldn't really find any literature on the matter. The only thing I found was this "project" published in the American Journal of Infection Control: http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(11)00471-8/pdf If you're unable to access the paper, you're not missing much ... here are the last two paragraphs: In other words, there were too many confounding factors to tell us what role--if any--this particular policy played in the reduction of their CLABSI rate. Terrific. All of the other research I found about CLABSIs and blood draws dealt with the contamination of blood cultures drawn from CVCs. Certainly an important issue, but not what I was looking for. Now I can see how drawing blood from a line may increase the risk of infection but I find it a bit curious that seemingly no research exists on the matter. Does anyone else know of any research on this subject? Is anybody else working at a facility that prohibits routine blood work from being drawn from CVCs? I'd love to hear about it.

Well, I guess nobody had any advice to share. That's ok--I got my license regardless. Hopefully others in a similar situation can learn from my experience. Here's what I did: 1) I researched the legal policies that would guide the decision of the licensing board. The policies for my state were easily found online, and the following section was relevant to my situation: The first two components of this section were both applicable to my situation, and so I was sure to mention that in the letter I wrote. 2) I went to the County Clerk and obtained a legal document verifying that there was no criminal record for the year of 2004 3) I included the volunteer-hour records that I amassed since that time--over 400 hours in total 4) I wrote a concise letter that included the following: a description of the situation leading to the arrest, an explanation of why I didn't include it on my original application, and a few sentences describing why I felt like I would make a good nurse Overnight mailing would have cost $24, so I went for the next-best option: Priority Express. Big mistake. It took a WEEK to travel 150 miles to the destination. Don't make my mistake--spare no expense when it comes to an important letter like this. It arrived Tuesday, February 28 and I just got my license today, March 10. I was never really in doubt that my license would be issued, for the legal code in my state specified that my arrest was not grounds for a denial, but I was worried that it would take a long time to process. I'm thankful that the good folks at my state's licensing board granted me my license in a timely manner. If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Mainly, I'm just hoping that someone in a future situation comes across this post and gets some hope for their situation. I never paid a lawyer--just did my research and did the best I could. Have a good weekend everyone! You already know mine is gonna be GREAT

Hello, I am a recently-graduated RN who passed the NCLEX and applied for my license just a few weeks ago. Today I received a letter from my state's board of professional regulation, only to find that I had not received my license due to a "deficiency". Specifically, an arrest on my record from 2004 came up during the background check. When I was 15 I had stolen a couple graphing calculators from my high school and was subsequently arrested. This never went to court, I never entered a plea of any kind, I was never found guilty--I'm not even sure I was charged. Rather, I was arrested, released 6 hours later, and that was pretty much it. My school's resource officer had me do 20 hours of community service, and I never heard anything from it ever again. I have since undergone 5-10 background checks and come up clear every time. I never thought to mention this on my application for my RN license since I wasn't convicted of anything and I was a minor at the time. I will freely admit: I was a young, dumb, rebellious teenager. I'm embarrassed to admit that I did something as stupid and selfish as stealing, but at the time I thought it was "cool". I have not experienced any legal troubles since then--I haven't even gotten a speeding ticket in over 10 years!!! Regardless, this arrest could possibly keep me from realizing my dream of becoming an RN. On the letter I received, it asked me to explain the circumstances of my arrest and re-send my application. Does anyone have any advice for me? Should I seek legal counsel? Is this likely to lead to a denial of my application? Any thoughts would be appreciated. TL;DR - got arrested for petty theft 13 years ago. Never went to court for it. No legal troubles since then. RN application was sent back because of this.