Can you get a healthcare job if you've EVER been arrested?

Question

I'm a college student right now and I'm majoring in an allied health field. About a year ago, I was arrested and charged with public lewdness, a class A misdemeanor. I was placed on probation and deferred adjudication. I completed the probation successfully, and was not given a conviction. Will an arrest but not a conviction on a crime prevent me from employment in the healthcare field?

If they run a background check and it shows the arrest record, am I required to explain the circumstances around the arrest?

I am not on a sex offender registry.

Answer 1

Dear Mad Scientist -

I tried to send this to you on your email, but it wouldn't let me send it to you...it said your email wasn't confirmed. But, hopefully you'll find this helpful.

I just came across your cockroach question in voting. I didn't feel there was a great answer there, so I'm choosing "No Best Answer." I don't know a ton about Cockroaches, but I know a little bit from my 3 month internship where I worked on Black Flag. That was 12 yrs ago, so I don't remember everything. But, here's a tad.

First, I believe just due to evolution/chance, cockroaches have been very resistant animals. In fact, they were one of the only species to survive the ice age (I think less than 1% of species survived). Part of this is prob due to their relatively harder shell/exoskeleton (relative to other insects), part of this is due to their eating habits (i.e. they can survive on almost any type of "food" and very little - e.g. I remember learning they could survive for weeks just fromthe glue of a postage stamp), and part of it is due to the speed at which they reproduce.

I may be a bit off on this (it's been a long time), but I believe that they mature in 7 weeks and are able to mate then. She then produces an egg spore that produces 35 more cockroaches, and they hatch in 5 weeks. Further, not sure if you remember the old Clorox commercials, but there was a line that said, "she mates once & she's pregnant for life." That's basically true. As soon as that egg spore hatches, she automatically becomes pregnant again.

For someone who hates bugs (like me), it's a bit disgusting (but also fascinating since I love science.).

Hope that helps.
Debbie

Also, re: your question above, I believe most companies care about convictions, not arrests. Nonetheless, I'm sure there is some variety. One thing you may want to do is get a job application and look at what they ask. You may start w/ a company you don't care about first.

Answer 2

maybe, maybe not? Are you on the sex offender registry in your state? It depends on the state you live in and what shows up on their search. As a probabtioner you may show up on any criminal checks. Something like a public lewdness conviction or charge would keep you out of nursing homes and AFC's. What did you do to get a public lewdness charge? pee in the street? just wondering.

Employers can only ask for convictions, not Arrests. But if something like that were top show up on an probationer or offender registry, I would seriously rethink a job offer.

Answer 3

The applications typically ask if you were 'convicted'. If you can honestly answer no, there should not be a problem. (Employment law makes it illegal to be asked if you have been arrested.) Good luck.