Florida BON status w/ Excelsior?

lexuan · Mar 13, 2010

"Applicants who have passed the NCLEX and have an active license in another

state may apply by endorsement."

Yes, you can get your license from another state and then apply for your Fl license by endorsement as of now. When I spoke with someone at the BON I could get no reassurance that there would not be changes made with that. I know that some states require you to work for a period of time in the state you are licensed in BEFORE applying for a license by endorsement. It seems a bit risky to me. I would check it out thoroughly before I gave them any money. I had already invested time and money but decided that I don't want to take the chance of not getting my license.

Good luck in whatever you decide!

RN543 · Mar 19, 2010

I did excelsior and am currently going through the process of getting my license. Right now, it's just a matter of applying to another state, taking your NCLEX, and once you pass you can immediately apply to Florida by endorsement. So it's really not much of an issue right now, just takes a little extra money and time since you have to apply to 2 nursing boards. I can only say great things about the education I received at Excelsior and I would do it all over again. However, the whole time I always had in the back of my mind that there could be some change and it would all be for nothing. So like the other poster said, that is something u need to think about. If you are willing to take that risk. For me it was a lot cheaper then the school I was going to go to, and I was able to work full time while I did it. Good luck!

momnnp · Apr 6, 2010

I know at one time you had to be an LPN, licensed in another state, and have worked as an RN for two years prior to applying for endorsement in Florida. I am not sure if that has now changed. My husband is a Paramedic and had done about half of the Excelsior program. He stopped taking the exams and has since been enrolled in a Paramedic to RN bridge program at a community college.

nursienurse_81 · May 7, 2010

I applied for the CPNE at the very end of October and 4 days later received a Jan 8 CPNE date. Went to the CPNE and passed in Jan but my graduation date wasn't scheduled through excelsior until March 19th(which is slightly ridiculous). I applied to the North Carolina Board of Nursing like the next day to take the NCLEX and got my sit pass on March 27th and then took and passed the NCLEX on April 28. The NCBON said my license will post on Saturday May 8th. I have already got my FLBON online application done and filled out so I can enter my credit card info on Sat and submit my application and send off my fingerprints. The Florida BON takes 3 weeks (even though they have 30days) to complete your application and issue you a license. So that all together will be 7 months from the time I took the CPNE to actually get a Florida license.

That being said. I enjoyed going to Excelsior. I found it to be extremely easy (except the CPNE... what a nightmare!!!). If I had it to do over again I would probably opt for Excelsior again. I went to the CPNE in Albany and did the workshop in Albany and 99% of the people were supppppeeerr nice. I completed all of my prereqs while in the LPN program and only had to do the INL and nursing courses and CPNE at Excelsior. So the entire time spent doing it (which I was not very motivated) was about 1 1/2 yrs. All in all good experience though. Excelsior was very good about answering questions and it really wasn't all that expensive. Plus the hospital I work with reimbursed me so all I was out was about $6k and that was money well spent and I didn't have to cut back on my work hours.

If you choose to go ahead and apply for FLBON through examination beware of the following. THEY ONLY REVIEW EXCELSIOR GRAD APPS EVERY OTHER MONTH. Which means in order for me to have my app reviewed in May I had to have my application submitted by March 12 (which was before my graduation date). Therefore I would have had to wait until JULY to have my application reviewed and then okayed before I would get my att. So I asked the state of Florida if I could just apply for licensure (because that option IS NOT GOING TO BE OFFERED TO YOU BY FLBON STAFF) and the woman said, "I'm glad you mentioned that. We are not allowed to tell you that if you apply for endorsement you can be licensed, but yes if you apply for endorsement we do not review your application with the board. We just give you a license by endorsement if your background check and etc are okay." So I chose to go tha route to save my self god only knows how long. It did cost me an extra $270 but it was well worth it.

Hope this helps.

Bean79 · May 19, 2010

On the Distance Learning forum, there is a thread stating the BON will start accepting all Excelsior grads beginning July 1st. Not sure how to post link, but below is the page.

https://allnurses.com/distance-learning-nursing/good-news-florida-479377.html

stevefl · Sep 9, 2010

Florida BON does accept Excelsior College for sure now. I graduated EC in May, I waited until July 1 to apply, received my ATT on July 16, took my NCLEX on August 19 received my license on August 24 and hired today.

One thing you may want to remember, when you are interviewing for a job, if the interviewer had never heard of Excelsior they probably have heard of Regents College which was the name before they changed it to EC.

Good Luck

Steve