Question about acceptance

Good Evening all.

I'm looking for some serious input from the forum regarding a pretty serious issue I might be facing soon. I am currently scheduled to begin nursing school this fall. I have been a paramedic for the last 12 years. After spending all of that time trying to get patients to definitive health care within the "Golden hour", I decided that I would like to be a part of that definitive health care team. (Trauma nursing, here I come !!)

Here is my dilemma: When I went to the orientation last week, I was filled in on all of the requirements necessary for entrance. One of the main issues for me was the part about having been convicted of a crime. Either a felony, or a misdemeanor. Well, guess what? I have one of each. Allow me to explain a bit before I get flamed. The misdemeanor was for impersonating a police officer. It was because I got pulled over on the interstate when I was moving from Omaha to Virginia Beach. Since I was a volunteer firefighter in Omaha, I was allowed to have a red light on my dashboard. I was not aware that it was not legal in Virginia. Luckily, once I was able to prove to the court that I was, in fact, a firefighter in Omaha, the charge was overturned. It still shows on my record though.

The felony was for embezzlement of information. In that case, I was working for a pharmaceutical monitoring firm that regulated the testing and trial phases of new medicines and medical adjutants from inception to approval by the FDA. I found a co-worker that had a perfect record of compliance from his clients. That is a very rare thing in the pharmaceutical world. I did some digging and found that he was cutting corners, falsifying information, and breaking rules to get his clients through the testing process faster. I don't know if he was getting anything for it, but I chose to turn him in. I copied the information to a floppy diskette,submitted my resignation, and turned the information over to the police. The individual was fired and charged, the company was sanctioned, and the accounts were pulled and turned over to another watchdog group. About a month later, I was arrested at my home and charged with embezzlement of proprietary information for turning company information over to a third party without authorization.

I have no intention of trying to hide this on my nursing school application. I am not willing to part with my integrity and honesty by trying to do so. I know that I will have to get am exemption from disqualification from each hospital that I do clinicals at, and I know that if they choose not to give me one, I will be forced to drop out of the program. I am willing to risk that in order to chase my dream.

What I would like to know is whether this is something that will likely kill my chances of being a nurse. These things happened a number of years ago, and I have never had any other issues at all. I am not looking to be berated or flamed by anyone. I just want some good, honest answers and advice. Please?:imbar