Working With Felons

Nurses General Nursing

Published

One my co-workers, a BSN was fired yesterday because she had a previous felony record that was drug and larcency related prior to becoming a nurse. She said the conviction was in 1985. They fired her because she lied on the application 4 years ago. She told me she lied because she would not have been given a chance if she didn't.

How do you feel about felons holding nursing positions / Lic. especially in these worried times?

I perceive things today as there are no 2nd chances and we are worried about them working in almost everything except fastfood and unskilled labor areas. I think by doing this we are making the problem worse in the long run.

I guess I am a little upset because no matter what our ER lost a good one, and "good ones" are very hard to come by.

So, how do you other nurses feel about things like this?

Dave

I feel the same way only you said it better-Yes who is taking care of our children as we work to save lives...........and I won't go into politics(the ex president esp)

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Thanks for the info

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When I read the first thread, my first thought was "she lied therefor that speaks volumes to her character as well as her moral values. i wouldn't want someone of that calliber working with me or taking care of my loved one!

But Dave123 put it into a little different (and brighter) perspective for me......

I did support Clinton when he went through the Lewinski scandal, my opinion was....so what?, he made a mistake....so he lied to the public its not the publics business anyway,it has nothing to so with his abilities as president...blah blah blah...

No Dave, I don't know the background of my neighbors (nor do they know mine thank goodness), but I judge them based on what they are and who they are in my life.

You put an interesting perspective and comparison on this topic.:eek:

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I am in Washington State. I can tell you that here you CAN NOT get a license to practice as a Nurse, Teacher OR Lawyer if you have a felony conviction. Also by state law persons employing a Teachers or Nurses must perform a criminal background check. Persons convicted of a felony or and misdomeaner involving any violence, drugs, theft or 'taking advantage of' are not eligible for employment if the may come in any contact with a 'vulnerable' person. Employment as a Nurse or Teacher is prohibited completely if convicted of certain crimes.

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Specializes in ER, Hospice, CCU, PCU.

Given a chance to explain maybe she would have gotten the job maybe she wouldn't....But lying on any job application, no matter how large or small is grounds for termination, even if you've worked at a place for 25 years.

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Specializes in Pediatric Rehabilitation.

Why on earth would an employer search an employee's criminal record 5, 10 or 25 years after hire???

She shouldn't have lied, but I understand why she did..it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

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I would like to tell you about a story I know of that happened to a friend of mine.

She applied, was accepted to, a business school. She was young and when given her student financial aid application, they told her to sign it and they would fill in the rest. This was in 1985. She had been to school before and because of personal circumstances (an abusive controlling marriage) had not paid on a previous student loan. She went to the school for between 2 and 4 weeks and she quit....giving them notice. Please not that she NEVER got any money in hand (the school kept the entire amount). In 1991, a grand jury indicted her (on the state level) for taking money for a student loan when she was in default on another (federal) student loan as noted by a check mark in a box on the original application. In 1995, she was arrested, put in jail, and because she was poor, in an abusive relationship, she was plea bargained (by a public defender) and found guilty of felony theft. She is now in nursing school (she paid everything off and the records were supposed to be sealed). She has since found out that the state NEVER sent the full amount to the Dept. of Education, nor did they properly post the payments made and there was a warrant out for her. This is costing her allot of money in attorney's fees to try to get this mess straightened out.

After contacting a "real" attorney, she found out that this should never have been in court in the first place!!!! This should have been handled just like all of the rest of the defaulted student loans in the country. A zealous new district attorney is the one that persued this and because she was a poor person, she got sucked into the system.

This school has since been under investigation (with some convictions) for taking government money.

I have known this person for quite awhile now, and I would be proud to work with her. She would never do anything to harm anyone so..... should she be kept from practicing nursing??? I think not!! Hell, they allow nurses who are addicts to continue practicing after treatment don't they? So why shouldn't they look at the whole picture of who, what, where and WHEN something happened to someone? It should not be such a black and white issue......there are allot of gray areas too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that just because someone is "convicted" of something that they should be allowed to tell the story without being judged a second time by people that know NOTHING about what happened!!! IMHO!!!!

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My friend just called me and told me that the prosecuting attorney contacted her attorney and said that they had more pressing matters to deal with and they would eventually get around to her case. This is so ludicrous!! This poor woman has been through enough with an abusive marriage, and now an abusive system! I don't know what to tell her....any ideas?

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Hi. The question in my mind then becomes how far should release of information, privacy, and confidentiality laws go to protect the public? Someone has already pointed out that background information is requested from years on back by employers. I agree that when we are planning to get married in these days and times, we need this information (didn't think about this back then).

However, we know that after a certain period of time, we're forgiven certain indiscretions like late payment on credit or bankruptcy. Also, the IRS stops auditing our history after a certain point.

I feel that had this nurse not lied about her felony, she may have found herself in a stronger position to perhaps fight unfair policies discriminating against those who may have recovered or be in recovery from poor habits from their past. This is why I wrote that she can never be free as long as she is using lies as a self-defense. I just hope that this ordeal doesn't drive her back into her former way of life. I hope that she will overcome and as another posted indicated, move on to something else constructive.

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will i am a mother of six who was charged with theft of leased property because i left my husband of ten years who was abuseing me and my kids because he decided to kept everything and not paid for anything that we rented when we were together i work hard too be a nurse thinking this is what i needed to do so i can leave me and be able to take care of my self and my kids but he took that away from me too and i just want to know how i can do something about it what can i do so that i can go back to nursing and be able to take care of my kids !

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Specializes in open heart recovery.

Full disclosure when asked. Honesty & sound Moral Turpitude is in high demand. Good Luck.

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