Virginia has mini compromised

In all seriousness...Congrats to everyone in Virginia!!! Traci

LOL! I just about spit coffee all over my monitor. Ha ha!!!

And the tide is turning..... More to come, I'm sure.

I am soo happy about this! I feel like dancing! lol I live in Pa, but i am thinking of moving to dc/norther va. after i finish EC! Now my plans seem so more realistic!!!!


Now we have to work on Maryland BON!!!!

I was checking the site yesterday to determine if SB 205 had passed, which would allow EC grads to endorse in ... I couldn't tell if it had been approved or not. It looked like it had, but I'm not sure.

Thats great news Lunah! What site did u check? The EC site or the MD bon of site? I always have a hard time trying to figure out the wording of the retrictions of a particular state board.

SB 205 was thrown out by the Maryland Legislature because the Maryland Board of Nursing and other RN's and organizations supposedly had proof that lack of clinical hours in nursing programs such as Excelsior's is dangerous to patients and made lack of clinical hours a patient safetly issue. The legislature got intimidated and throw the bill out before it even made it to the floor. I have written and spoken to the woman who deals with education on the Maryland Board of Nursing and in my opinion she is ignorant and would not listen to my point of view on the program. I think the Maryland Board of nursing is full of it. How can you prove that Excelsior nurses are not as safe as traditionally school nurses? If the there is proof I would like to see it. Any nurses in Maryland who graduated from Excelsior should come together like the nurses in Texas and contact the Governor of Maryland and plead there case. I work at a Millitary hospital and there are many nurses here who went through Excelsior and they are some of the best nurses I know with impeacable clinical skill. If clinical skill are in question I would put Excelsior graduates up against traditional graduates (not that I'm nocking traditional graduates just making a point) to see the scores. Excelsior's clinical portion of the program is very rigid and if you don't know what your doing they will not pass you. That is part of reason why there is waiting period, (besides volume of students) excelsior wants you to be prepare. I am a future Excelsior graduate and I live in VA. I'm working on my prereq's and will start nursing exams in August. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I was going to get my license in DC since I work at a federal facility but I am elated that VA is has compromised with Excelsior because it's a wonderful program. I did not have time to sit in a class room. Thank You for letting me vent. God Bless

A Constituent Member Association of the American Nurses Association, Representing Maryland’s Professional Nurses Since 1904.

MNA Protects Patient Safety by Blocking SB 205

The Maryland Nurses Association (MNA)
demonstrated the power of nurses in Annapolis
this session. When the Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene (DHMH) introduced Senate Bill
205–State Board of Nursing–Licensing–Licensure by
Endorsement–Provisional Practice Permits, MNA
polled its members and sprang into action. MNA’s grass
roots pressure and intense lobbying efforts eventually
forced the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to
withdraw the bill, allowing them to avoid the bill being
killed.
SB 205 drew strong opposition because it raised
serious patient safety issues. The bill’s authors stated
that it was an attempt to alleviate the nursing shortage
by reducing “barriers” to licensure. However as soon as
the bill was introduced, nurses across Maryland began
to question its long-term implications for patient safety.
MNA partnered with other nursing organizations,
including the Black Nurses Association of Baltimore and
the Maryland Association of Nursing Students (MANS),
to oppose the bill.
The controversy over the bill centered on the creation
of two new pathways to licensure by endorsement.
Through licensure by endorsement, a nursing board
licenses a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse
who has a license from another state or country and has
passed an acceptable licensure exam. While licensure by
endorsement is already a common practice in Maryland
and other states, SB 205 created two new pathways for
licensure for individuals without complete educations.
MNA’s membership strongly felt that this lack of education would put patients at risk.


With the first new pathway,
the Maryland Board of Nursing
would have been able to license
an endorsement candidate who
lacked clinical training. Nurses
who met certain conditions
could substitute work experience
for clinical training. MNA’s
membership strongly felt that
nurses need structured clinical
training in order to learn how
to practice safely. The nurses
eligible for licensure through
this pathway would have
graduated from an accredited school that only offered a
final assessment of clinical skills without the preparatory
clinical training. These nurses would only have been
required to have 44 days of clinical practice experience
in the past year or 125 days in the past 5 years.
Under the second new pathway, the Maryland
Board of Nursing would have been allowed to issue a
provisional permit to an endorsement candidate who
was missing clinical or didactic training. While the
provisional permit holder would have only been allowed
to practice within a limited scope, MNA’s membership
felt that the provisional permit holder would put patients
at risk for two reasons: 1) A nurse needs complete clinical
and didactic training in order to deliver safe care. No
one has considered licensing other health professionals,
including physicians, without a complete education; and
2) Given the realities of the work place, it would be nearly
impossible for a nurse to stay within a limited scope of
practice. In most health care facilities, nurses get moved
from unit to unit and from shift to shift. There is no way
to guarantee that the provisional permit holder would not
be asked to practice outside the scope of the permit.
In response to such deep concerns about patient safety,
DHMH asked the Senate to amend the provisional permit
provision. The amendment renamed the provisional
permit to a temporary limited license. Under the new
name, an endorsement candidate could be missing one
didactic component. However, MNA’s concerns about
the bill still remained. The amended pathway for a
temporary limited license still allowed a nurse to practice
without a complete education. The pathway to allow
clinical experience to substitute for clinical training still remained intact.


IAfter the Senate passed the amended bill, MNA
continue to oppose the bill in the House. A good hearing
in front of the House Health and Government Operations
Committee revealed the bill’s problems to the legislators.
Shortly after the hearing, DHMH withdrew the bill.
MNA has agreed to continue discussions about
reducing barriers to licensure for qualified applicants, as
long as practicing nurses and educators are at the table.
As the legislative process revealed, workforce shortage
proposals need to be thoroughly vetted before being
implemented. Patient safety is too important to risk.
MNA would like to thank all of its members who contacted
their legislators about the bill and our partner nursing
organizations for their work. We also would like to extend a
special thank you to Robyn Elliott, MNA’s lobbyist, for her
efforts on this bill. We have demonstrated that nurses working
together can have a significant impact on the legislative process.ue

Hello, I don't see anything on the Virginia Board of Nursing's web site about endorsement of a nursing graduate with 960 hours. Where did you get your information from. Thank You