[ehammond03]

Hi,

I am not a nurse, but my fiance is finishing up her last semester in Detroit and planning on moving to Chicago with me after graduation. Her problem is finding a hospital that will hire her with out being licensed in Illinois. She has had plenty of offers in Detroit to get hired on as a graduate nurse, but after a good seven months of searching in Chicago-nothing. I am trying to help her but I have no clue about job searching, or how to help her in anyway....so here I am. Please help!!

Thank you!!

[jv-thompson]

I thought I read online at Il dept. prof. regultn. that illinois will no longer employ "licence applied for" nurses. Instead they want them to conentrate on their boards.

[mamason]

She needs to apply for a license in Illinois in order to gain permission from the board to work. I'm not sure if they even allow temporary licensed RN's to work. Please go to the Illinois Board of Professional Regulation. You will find your answers on what is required to work as a RN in the state of Illinois.

[Emma Peel]

If you are sure you want to live in Illinois, you can get licensed in Illinois even though you have gone to school somewhere else. The NCLEX exam that is taken after graduation is a national exam, but the individual states issue licenses to work.
The previous poster is correct that the website for the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation gives you info on how to get an Illinois license after schooling in another state. You don't have to get your Michigan license first, but you cannot work in Illinois before you have taken and passed the NCLEX. You MAY be able to start orientation at a hospital here after you have taken and passed NCLEX (before you have Illinois license in hand), but you definitely cannot start working as an RN in Illinois (not even orientation) just because you graduated nursing school. They changed the law here a few years ago.

Good luck and come on down!

Jen