Question about past convictions

[morelaur]

Hey guys!

So I am waiting to hear news on whether or not I got accepted into my program of choice. One of the questions on the application was whether or not I had any past convictions (felonies or misdemeanors), and it said to report them even if they had been expunged. Well, unfortunately, when I was young and dumb, I got charged with possession of marijuana. I had to do 6 months unsupervised probation, which I completed with no problems. I have never been to jail. And that was my only charge. This happened about 9 years ago when I was 19, and has since been expunged from my record. BUT I am really worried that this is going to negatively impact my changes of getting into the program. My advisor said its not the charges that they consider but rather, the fact that it might be hard to place me in a job after I finish the program. I haven't had any problems to date getting a job and I have applied to MANY jobs that have done background checks, all of which have come back clear.

So my question is, have any of you been accepted to a nursing program who have had a record? If you are already a nurse and you had a record at one point, did it affect your chances of getting a job?

Any experiences or advice to share would be much appreciated!! I am worrying myself sick over this.

Thanks!

[gere7404, BSN, RN]

I hear California's BON is kind of a pain in the butt to deal with. It sounds like they take their time to do their investigation to make you sweat over it (maybe to get people to not do it again?), but in the end most of the time they approve people with minor records like that. Possible scenario is you go through a program, pass the NCLEX, and then have to wait a couple months to a year for the BON to say you can work.