Pursuing Nursing with Petty Theft Hx

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Hello all! I am sharing my story as a way of giving back to this community. Postings on this forum have helped me TREMENDOUSLY! All the helpful tips as well as the emotional support as I struggled when applying for licensure/going through nursing school with a criminal history have meant the world to me!! I would love nothing more than to have my post help any of you out

My Background:

(FYI: Everything took place in LA County)

I was arrested for Petty Theft when I was 19 at a department store. Booked, fingerprinted... all that fun stuff. I went to court for my arraignment and was fortunate enough to be offered a pretrial diversion since this was my first run-in with the law. Upon successful completion, my case was dismissed later that year. Unfortunately in CA, even if your case is ultimately dismissed, arrest records are still present and according to a police friend of mines, who looked my name up, my petty theft incident still showed up as well.

The following spring is when I started nursing school. I panicked over the background check needed to get in but nothing showed up. And at the start of each semester I would freak out again when I had to get a background check done or fingerprinted for each clinical site. The government owned facilities are where I ran into some problems. Their applications ask whether you've ever been arrested, regardless of the disposition. Of course I marked "yes" and my application would get delayed while the rest of my cohort were getting their temp badges. I almost had to skip a semester because it was taking so long for my application to get processed. My biggest tip is to be proactive about the situation if you are the only one whose application hasn't been approved because of your record, call HR, and see what the delay is! HR allowed me to pick up my record from the court and scan over the documents (my application was approved an hour later).

Application Process:

What is needed according to the CA BoN:

- Letter of Explanation

- Certified arrest and court records or out of state discipline documents

- Letters of reference

- Current work performance evaluation

I started gathering things the summer before my last semester of nursing school. The hardest part for me was asking past clinical instructors/mangers for a letter of reference/work eval. I was so scared and embarrassed because my petty theft incident is something NOBODY but 2 people knew about. But I mustered up my courage, sent the emails, and waited anxiously. I sent out 3 emails and got a response back from 2. The emails I received were so encouraging and understanding, so don't be too afraid! I also worked at a restaurant at that time and explained the situation to my manager in person and he was more than willing to write me a letter of reference and work eval. In total I sent 3 letters of reference and 1 current work eval.

Another struggle was writing a letter of explanation because I didn't know what in the world the BoN wanted me to include. Thanks to the awesome people of this forum I was able to form a general idea and this is the basic format I followed for my letter:

My address

Date

BoN's address

Board of Registered Nursing:

Paragraph1 : WHY are you writing this letter, including what you hope the letter will covey to the reader (eg: I am writing this letter to provide an explanation of my petty theft conviction as well as the circumstances surrounding this incident. In writing this letter, I hope to convey…)

Paragraph 2: WHAT happened, stay OBJECTIVE! This is the paragraph where I stated facts only and explained what I did, what court I went to, what deal I was offered at court, how much money did I pay, how many hourse of community service I did, when did I come back to court, what happened when I returned to court. (eg: On July 30, 2011 I was arrested by LASD for stealing a shirt from Macy's at Del Amo Mall.)

Paragraph 3: This is the paragraph where I tried to redeem myself. I didn't make excuses for my actions. I took full responsibility for what I did and explained how I learned from it. If you did anything to give back to the community afterwards, explain what you did. Perhaps you volunteered in an after school program to guide young adults in the right direction. Or maybe you took classes regarding your offense (or even taught the class yourself). I didn't do any kind of volunteer work and so I wrote about how this incident allowed me to be less judgmental of people who have some sort of history or current struggle. I tied this in with my mental health rotation experience and nursing in general, how my new attitude has ultimately made me capable of being a better nurse.

Paragraph 4: Closing paragraph, sweet and simple. Briefly explained why I want to be part of the nursing profession and what I could bring to the table as a nurse.

Thanked the board for taking my application into consideration for licensure,

Sign/Name

Once you have your letters of reference and explanation out the way, the rest is a piece of cake! You just need to go retrieve the documents from the appropriate places, but it'll cost ya $$$.

Post Application:

I ended up submitting everything by the first week of November and officially graduated December of 2014. Some of my cohorts got their ATT as early as December 28th! But I knew mine would take longer. All of January passed and still no ATT. By mid February I started to panic because most of my cohort either took their NCLEX already or were about to take it soon. I called several times and each time they told me my application is still under review by the enforcement department. Finally on February 22nd I received my ATT! I ended up passing my NCLEX on the first try, received my license (no restrictions), and I am currently working as a New Grad at a top hospital here in LA!

SIDE NOTE: If I could go through nursing school all over again, I would let more people know about my petty theft incident instead of keeping it bottled up and blowing up the situation in my head. Set up a meeting with your nursing director when you get accepted into the program so he/she knows about your situation and can possibly write you a letter of reference. Let your clinical instructors know while you are their current student so they can write a more sincere letter! Tell your nursing BFFs! (I regret not telling them sooner!) Once I started talking to people about it I realized it wasn't as big of a deal as I was making it out to be. YES shoplifting is morally wrong but just remember that EVERYONE has done things in their past that they regret!! The important thing is that you've learned from your mistakes and now you're taking positive actions to live a better life! /rant.

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This gives me so much hope and THANK YOU for sharing your success story. I am in the same boat and feel so ashamed of my past and I'm at the point where only a couple people in this world know about my record. Thanks for giving tips for those in the same situation. I am so happy you were able to get licensed. Congratulations!!

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I'm pretty much on the same boat same charge same county. Thank you so much for the advice and for sharing your story. You've given me hope!

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Thank you SOOOO much for sharing your story! I am in the same situation and this has 1. given me hope for my future 2. gave me invaluable tips for my own situation. THANK YOU!

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Hi Lisa,

I am in the same exact position you were once in (I was arrested at the same mall, for the same thing). Is there a way I can email you with some questions I might have? I am graduating in 2 months and was just informed of all of this documentation I have to muster up and I am so overwhelmed! Any tips you can give me would mean the world to me.

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On 6/18/2015 at 11:51 AM, nalie2 said:

I'm pretty much on the same boat same charge same county. Thank you so much for the advice and for sharing your story. You've given me hope!

Hey do you mind elaborating on your arrest? I have some questions if you can email me [email protected]

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Hows your nursing career so far??

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