Highly appreciate the information

You are very welcome. I remember your post. Keep up your spirits.

It seems like every time I've pursued something worthwhile and serious in my life all kinds of curve balls get thrown at me. Don't know if you follow my posts, but a few months ago I had a colonoscopy and a tumor was found. I had the surgery to remove it and found that I would need chemotherapy followup. Did the fun stop there? Oh, hell no. I got a wound infection which is delaying the chemotherapy. And just for fun it developed into a septic infection that landed me in the hospital on IV antibiotics for 11 days. AND (there's more!) they discovered that my heart was bradycardic with rates down into the 30s and 40s just to see if the nursing staff was on their toes (Ha! Ha!) I had to have a pacemaker put in! Chemotherapy, something was talked about ages ago, it seems, might start in a week or two--maybe. My PICC line, which was put in over 2 weeks ago for chemotherapy, is now looking red around the insertion site and one of the docs is talking about getting it replaced with a Hickman line. In the meantime, I'm counting off the possible days I have left to find homes for my kitties in case we don't cure this cancer. This is just the current example of ***** (f****d up beyond all recognition) in my life. You wouldn't believe the nightmare I went through to get into my BSN nursing program!!

But, you know what? You have to just keep on putting one foot in front of the other. Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant. In the end, you call the experience wisdom and pass on what you've learned as I have done for you.

FYI. . .these licensing departments are so swamped that they seldom take phone calls anymore and it takes weeks for them to respond to letters. Most have the information on their websites--somewhere. Depending on how skilled their webmasters are, it may be buried in unrecognizable file names. I've been learning how to dig the information out and I'm often amazed at where I'm finding it.

Good luck to you.

Hang in there. I've deliberately left off some of my higher education on some job applications to nursing homes figuring that putting my BSN down would look too intimidating to them and got the job. You never know. The person they hired may not work out and you will be the next person they call. It happens. I call it planting seeds. You never know which seed, even a puny one, might grow and blossom into a beautiful plant.

Come to California. California needs RNs BAD. There are opportunities here, particularly in the LA/Orange county area. California has a nurse/patient staffing law in effect and a number of nurses were very quick to point out to me recently that very shortly the ratio changes to 4:1. This applies to RNs in the acute hospitals. I also heard on the news today that King Medical Center in LA, the huge city hospital, was finally closed. That is going to create problems for the surrounding hospitals who will have to take on that patient population, also will require them to beef up their nursing staffs. California--land of opportunity. Many of the community college nursing programs are going to a lottery system and doing away with the waiting lists to get into the nursing schools because they are getting unreasonably long. I know, for sure, that Rio Hondo CC goes by lottery now. You can apply to any and all CC nursing programs in California to increase your chances when you are resident. I am hearing of hospitals that are giving grants of money to nursing schools to hire nursing instructors so they can get more nursing students into their nursing programs and trained. I was originally trained at an ADN program in California but got my BSN at an eastern college. I think my California training was superb. When I moved back east I was hired immediately and told a number of times that my California training was greatly desired.

• http://www.nurse.ca.gov/ - California Nurse Outreach. The governors nurse education initiative home page. Information here on how to become a nurse.
• http://www.rn.ca.gov/schools/rnprgms.htm - list of RN programs in California from the California Board of Nursing
  
• http://www.choosenursing.com/paying/calfinaid.html - financial aid available for nursing students in California - current tuition for California residents at the community colleges is $20 a credit hour. You must have lived in California for one calendar year to become an official resident.
  

I'm feeling much better today. The infection seems to be clearing up and my open surgical wound gets smaller every day. Tomorrow I'm having a PET scan--looking for metastasis. My HIM instructors are hounding me about registering for 2 fall classes which start next week.

Traffic? My sister refuses to drive on the freeways. Me, I don't mind it. Bumper to bumper at 15 miles an hour will still get you there faster than going on a main road.

You might consider getting an LVN first and then doing an LVN to RN bridge program. You'd be earning more money as an LVN while waiting to get into an RN program. Some California CCs have night and weekend classes for LVN and RN courses. They are looking for more ways to crank nurses out back here.

They said MLK might be able to re-open in a year. It still puts a burden on the other hospitals in the area during that time.