Can you be a nurse with a DUI? First, let’s just talk about what it means if you have a DUI. You could’ve been charged with the DUI, but never convicted. That’s not going to prevent you from becoming a nurse. I’m just talking about convictions here, meaning, you either pled guilty through a plea agreement, went to trial, and lost, and were found guilty. That’s what I’m talking about. Or, maybe you reached pretrial diversion program, which most boards consider a guilty outcome. Now, first, this is just general information. Every state has their own specific rules, as far as kind of criminal background.
I’m just going to give you general information, things to think about. Maybe you’re thinking about entering nursing school or maybe you’re just finishing up nursing school and now you’re going to have to apply to boards and you’re like, oh no. I do have the stuff in my background. I never thought about it. Can I get a license? So, totally delay any major fear. 99 times out of 100, yes, if you have a DUI in your past, you’re still going to be able to get your nursing license. Now, it may be under some conditions, but it’s very rare unless it’s felony DUI that would prevent you from getting a nursing license, like completely. Let’s just kind of break down what a board will look at if you have a past DUI.
Usually, when you apply, and this is state-specific, it’ll normally say, have you had any convictions regarding substance abuse or alcohol or something like that? A DUI obviously is yes, considered one of those. And it’s going to say, alright, well, tell us when it happened, where it happened, give us a little statement about what happened. And then they may even want the nurse to provide them with the criminal record. There are two parts to any record of the police documents and then the court documents. And they’re separate, they’re normally not in the same place. You’ll have to request them from both. Once you have all of that, you’ve submitted a statement, then depending upon the length of time that you elapsed since you had the DUI, what your BAC was. Do you have three DUIs versus one? Do you have any other kind of substance abuse-related, maybe some drug charges, possession sale, maybe had a lot of disorderly conduct or domestic violence-related incidents involving alcohol.
If there are any kind of major red flags beyond just, I’ve had one regular DUI in my past, what a board will normally do is they’re going to investigate. The investigation will be kind of a review of all of the criminal and court documents. And then they’ll usually ask to speak to the nurse. What happened here? What was going on in your life at the time? Did you have to do any kind of rehabilitation? Did you go into rehab, maybe an IOP, have you been doing AA? What are your current drinking habits? Those are the questions they’re going to ask to determine, alright, do you have a problem or not? I mean, the main, well, not the main, the stated purpose of every board of nursing is to protect the public, not to protect the nurse. They’re not there for you. They’re there to protect the public.
If they’re going to license somebody who does have a criminal background involving a DUI, they want to make certain that you don’t either continue to have substance abuse-related problem that may bleed into the clinical side of providing patient care. Or, if you did have problems in the past, you must fix them in some way. As I said before, doing rehab or an IOP or counseling, AA, all those types of things. Just because you’ve had one DUI in your past, doesn’t mean you need to do all those things. Well, you probably don’t need to go to rehab or go to AA or do any of those things if you just had one DUI 10 years ago, and you just made a stupid decision. Now, if you’ve had three DUIs and you had a very high, like over 0.2 BAC, at least in Arizona, it’s called a super extreme DUI.
Yes, you probably do need to do those things to show the board that you have dealt with the issues and that you no longer have those problems. They’re going to ask about all your current drinking habits, so how much do you drink now? When I talk to a nurse and I say, okay, you’ve had one DUI, fine. It’s a great scheme of things. That’s not a big deal, but what are your current drinking habits? And they say, oh, I drink a six-pack every night before I go to bed. Okay, but most boards will describe that as someone with a substance abuse problem. Think of them as like the parish organization and anything above normal social drinking will shoot up red flags for them. Now, if they really think you may have an issue, some boards will then have a nurse get a substance abuse evaluation by a psychologist store, maybe a substance abuse counselor to get an opinion on whether they have any substance abuse problems.
And whether that professional believes they need monitoring program. That’s usually the worst-case scenario for a nurse with DUI in their background is that the board will essentially force them to go on probation for a period. And they’ll grant the license simultaneously. They’ll say, yes, you can be a nurse, but you’ll be on probation for 12 months and you’ll have to do random drug screens, AA, recovery group, supervision at work. Can’t use your multi-state privilege if your state offers that. That’s usually the worst-case scenario for a nurse to get completely denied a license based upon a single DUI in their past is extraordinarily rare. Almost for sure would-be other factors involved beyond just that one incident. So, take a deep breath. If you’ve had a one DUI, it doesn’t mean the end of the world, and it doesn’t mean you’re never going to get a nursing license, but there may be some things you’re going to have to explain.
If you do have an extensive criminal history, it’s probably a good idea to contact an attorney in your state that handles the board stuff, maybe to come up with a plan or to kind of say, alright, do I need to do these things before I apply for my license? That would make the most sense. As I said before, I’m only in Arizona, so I can only assist nurses here in Arizona. But I think this is good general advice for any nurse who’s had a DUI in the past.
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