Nurses With Criminal Issues

As an occupation that is seen repeatedly as the most ethical and trusted profession, nurses are held to a very high standard by the public and the Board. Nurses can face difficulty with obtaining a license or with their current license due to criminal convictions and even arrests. Analyzing the effect a criminal issue can have on a nursing license is very detailed. It involves not only looking at the criminal incident, but also at any mitigating factors and at the nurse’s practice. The Board of Nursing also considers most crimes to be in some way related to nursing, so presentation of the criminal case to the Board is crucial.

Some issues have been identified by the Board as not requiring action , while other behaviors, such as those involving theft or fraud or sexual misconduct, can severely impact a nurse’s ability to work in nursing. Some nurses think that they can avoid reporting criminal issues to the Board and that the Board will never find out because either the issue has nothing to do with nursing or because the incident resulted in deferred adjudication. The Board considers a failure to report criminal incidents to the Board as deception and lying. Often the lying will result in a much more punitive reaction than the actual criminal incident would have, for example, a one time DWI that a nurse fails to disclose to the Board upon renewal. The one time DWI would not require disciplinary action by the Board as long as the nurse is not on probation, but evidence of misrepresentation to the Board would result in disciplinary action.