Is your nurse an ex-con?
Published: 2009-10-08 12:45:33
Author: Alan Cohn | ABC Action News | September 25, 2009
TAMPA, FL -- It was early June at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Tampa.
"This meeting will come to order."
While there were no cameras at the Florida Board of Nursing meeting, the hearing was recorded.
Waiting to have their cases heard were dozens of applicants hoping to become nurses for the first time or applying to have their license restored.
"The charge you have there is what, assault on a Police Officer, Domestic violence?"
Among those getting their licenses and now possibly working at a hospital or a nursing facility near you... felons... convicted of crimes like grand theft and dealing drugs.
"You no longer sell hydrocodone or cocaine?"
"Absolutely," the applicant answers.
"Do you use them?"
"No ma'am no not anymore."
"All in favor? Unanimous grant!"
Another case comes up. This time: attempted murderer.
"It was second degree attempted murder because I stabbed him 3-4 times."
"You've been granted. THANK YOU!"
Watching in the audience that day were Joy Abear and her husband Joe. They were more than just a little bit astonished by who was getting their licenses and the crimes they committed.
"I was kind of sitting in my seat squirming!" Joy said. "There was burglary. There was battery. There was concealed weapons charges."
Abear was there trying to get her license back as well. However, unlike some of the others in the room, her license had not been surrendered because she committed a crime.
"I was actually suffering from Multiple Sclerosis," she says.
She surrendered her license because she was sick and couldn't keep up with the required continuing certification process.
As for the felons, Joy Abear and her husband saw a number of them getting approved for nursing licenses that day.
Full story
Published: 2009-10-08 12:45:33
Author: Alan Cohn | ABC Action News | September 25, 2009
TAMPA, FL -- It was early June at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Tampa.
"This meeting will come to order."
While there were no cameras at the Florida Board of Nursing meeting, the hearing was recorded.
Waiting to have their cases heard were dozens of applicants hoping to become nurses for the first time or applying to have their license restored.
"The charge you have there is what, assault on a Police Officer, Domestic violence?"
Among those getting their licenses and now possibly working at a hospital or a nursing facility near you... felons... convicted of crimes like grand theft and dealing drugs.
"You no longer sell hydrocodone or cocaine?"
"Absolutely," the applicant answers.
"Do you use them?"
"No ma'am no not anymore."
"All in favor? Unanimous grant!"
Another case comes up. This time: attempted murderer.
"It was second degree attempted murder because I stabbed him 3-4 times."
"You've been granted. THANK YOU!"
Watching in the audience that day were Joy Abear and her husband Joe. They were more than just a little bit astonished by who was getting their licenses and the crimes they committed.
"I was kind of sitting in my seat squirming!" Joy said. "There was burglary. There was battery. There was concealed weapons charges."
Abear was there trying to get her license back as well. However, unlike some of the others in the room, her license had not been surrendered because she committed a crime.
"I was actually suffering from Multiple Sclerosis," she says.
She surrendered her license because she was sick and couldn't keep up with the required continuing certification process.
As for the felons, Joy Abear and her husband saw a number of them getting approved for nursing licenses that day.
Full story