CA Board of Nursing

World Registration

Published

I was eligible to sit for the nclex for California.

Wow.. so I took my exam this September, went the distance all 265 questions. Unfortunately I didn't pass. Got my results and "near passing standard" all across the board so the news of failure basically tore me apart.

Now what makes it worse is after submitting the reapplication form and waiting for four weeks for a reply from the board, I get a letter today stating

:::: The Board has determined that the program you completed in the Philippines is not equivalent to the minimum requirements for licensure set forth in California Code Section 1426(d).

You may be able to view Section 1426 (d) and all other codes of the California Code of Regulations by going to our website at: www.rn.ca.gov. Once in the website there will be 'Tabs' at the top of the screen. Go to Regulations then to Nursing Practice Act and finally to California Code of Regulations.

California Code of Regulations Section 1426(d) states that theory and clinical practice shall be concurrent. The documents received state that some of the training was completed several semesters after the theory classes. ::::::

I email the evaluator in charge of my application and she explains ::::

You have options and that is to apply to the LVN Board or in another RN Board in a different state or go for your master's degree in nursing but in California you are not qualified as a RN without the Master's degree.

According to the RLE and the school's curriculum you should have completed the scrubs in NCM 101 and 102 but they were completed in NCM 104, 105 and 103. I am enclosing a copy of the letter that was sent to you yesterday.

I'm angry and sad at the same time. How is it possible that I was eligible to take the nclex the first time I applied and not eligible to retake now? I went from meeting the requirements of an RN to now meeting the requirements of an LVN. How is this possible?

They are saying I'm ineligible based on the dates of completion of my cases. The school requires 5 major, 5 minor, 5 assisted delivery, 5 actual delivery, and 5 cord dressing clinical cases which I completed or else I wouldn't have been able to graduate. All of a sudden Ca board is being technical about the completion dates of these cases. The school is well aware of the fact that completion of these cases is impossible to be concurrent with the theoretical classes. It is not always guaranteed that students will complete the needed cases in concurrent with the theoretical because there are times when there aren't any patients in the hospitals that we are rotated in. It is for this reason that the school allows completion of the needed cases through out the following semesters. We took the theoretical classes before we were allowed to go on our clinicals but the lack of patients made it difficult to complete those 5 cases during that semester. That's why some of my cases were completed one or two semesters after the theory classes.

Am I understanding this correctly? I thought all that matters was that my cases were complete regardless if it was completed in concurrent/along with theoretical or after theoretical. I learned what I was suppose to learn it just so happen that exposure to the actual thing came a semester later.

So now they are saying I can't sit for the nclex in California and I need to complete a masters degree to be qualified as an Rn in California. Is this possible? I went to school graduated with a BSN and in the end I'm told that I only qualify to be a LVN after submitting a reapplication for nclex. .

Clarification would be nice and I would appreciate any advice. This just makes me question if nursing is even the right fit for me cause it's been obstacles after obstacles.

Nope my first time was last 2009

yes, lets take LVN for now:)

Hi to all! I thought I'm alone with this kind of fate. I'm so frustrated and devastated of what happened. Here's my brief background. I arrived here in CA early last year and took and passed my NCLEX from another state. I applied an endorsement here in CA late last year and the same problem I encountered with you guys. Why CA? It's because my hubby is working here from a prestigious hospital and has a position. We went to Sacramento last week to follow up my application but no luck. The same thing. I have to enroll my 30 units deficient in med-surg and ob. My husband and I discussed a lot of options. 1st, if we move out to another state and start all over again but now a days it's hard to find a job. 2nd, to enroll my deficient but it involves a lot of money. And lastly, to take the LVN board. I have a classmate here in CA and applied her NCLEX last 2010 and after a month was approved. She took her NCLEX last year but did not make it. She applied for ATT last month and was approved. She will take again her test hopefully within the month. If she's gonna make it, I wonder if her license will be release. If that's gonna happen, I'm planning to appeal to the BRN. The BRN told me that they will gonna recall all the Philippines graduates from 2004 and up. I do hope and pray the BRN will do something about this and reconsider.

@dayz13: which state did you pass your NCLEX?

how did the process go with u guys before the analyst told u to take NCLEX-PN instead or study masters?

Hi to all! I thought I'm alone with this kind of fate. I'm so frustrated and devastated of what happened. Here's my brief background. I arrived here in CA early last year and took and passed my NCLEX from another state. I applied an endorsement here in CA late last year and the same problem I encountered with you guys. Why CA? It's because my hubby is working here from a prestigious hospital and has a position. We went to Sacramento last week to follow up my application but no luck. The same thing. I have to enroll my 30 units deficient in med-surg and ob. My husband and I discussed a lot of options. 1st, if we move out to another state and start all over again but now a days it's hard to find a job. 2nd, to enroll my deficient but it involves a lot of money. And lastly, to take the LVN board. I have a classmate here in CA and applied her NCLEX last 2010 and after a month was approved. She took her NCLEX last year but did not make it. She applied for ATT last month and was approved. She will take again her test hopefully within the month. If she's gonna make it, I wonder if her license will be release. If that's gonna happen, I'm planning to appeal to the BRN. The BRN told me that they will gonna recall all the Philippines graduates from 2004 and up. I do hope and pray the BRN will do something about this and reconsider.

Did someone say they are going to "recall all the Philippines graduates from 2004 and up" or do you have that in writing?

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

What's the significance of 2004? was there a change in the BSN curriculum in the Philippines that started that year?

Yes there is. In fact they've changed the curriculum again last 2010.I was also denied application and I was so ****** to think that some of my classmates are working as RN's in California.I think they are trying to regulate the influx of foreign nurses.Mag CGFNS then apply here in Texas.

Pm me [email protected] or give me your number and I will call you right away or your best time.

I would not be at all surprised by the CA BON actions. It has severly impacted all USA graduates of a US based college called Excelsior College from all those that graduated from Dec. 2006, they are all BANNED from ever trying to re-take the CA nursing exam or to get their CA license endorsed or to even try to apply into CA from any Excelsior location, nationwide.

It doesn't matter if you have 4-5 years or more of top notch nursing experience. It's nothing to do with one's personal grades or reputation or ethnic background. It's how your classes were taken and constructed. If it was anything like Excelsior's of not doing clinicals at the same time of the theory unit, it simply didn't meet the minimum requirements as set forth by the CA BON.

Excelsior has fought for 3 plus years against the CA BON and lost their case. It has set a precedence and now pursing any and all other licensed persons who fall under not having met the rules and regulations set forth since 2003.

It is not a right but a privilege to become a CA RN, meaning one must adhere to the CA BON requirements. Everyone affected must appeal to their own colleges to fight for them. It's true that there may a few US educated (from Excelsior) affected by the CA BON and were able to get their licenses renewed.

I know as my own sister-in-law is a Excelsior grad and can NO longer become a CA RN, she is ****** and very disappointed, but those are the rules. She is going to fight it with letters and references, but so far of her 29 other classmates that graduated in 2007, NONE have succeeded, all have gotten rejection letters. Some have been fighting it for two years with inches of thick correspondence and some working in very well known national hospitals and worked up quickly into good positions.

Here's the official memo from the CABON: http://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/forms/excelsiornewsrelease.pdf

http://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/forms/excelsiorcourtdecision.pdf

My sister-in-law also mentioned that many of her nursing co-workers from PH are very much worried as they too have heard that the CABON is looking very heavily at the PH class courses from passed years and if those PH colleges also followed anything close to Excelsior's curriculum, they could even send a letter that their CA license may become not eligible to practice and not allowed to continue their current employment, but will have 3-4 years to complete their education as set forth by the CA BON. If you don't comply with them, they will not renew your license and you will be forced to stop working as an RN.

There are already other out of state hospitals that require all nurses get their BSN degrees within so many years or they will be simply terminated even with decades of experience. In most of the states, everyone signed a "at-will termination" agreement, meaning your employer can easily fire you with little cause of action and the employee cannot even sue the employer. They can but most judges and lawyers usually agree with the employers. If you don't sign the agreement, you don't get a paycheck.

One solution: just need to comply with the CA BON minimum requirements or face a uphill battle. Good luck to everyone, it's got to be a very rude awakening for all those affected.

are they really gonna recall all the nclex passers who passed 2004 onwards? how rediculous if that happen?

Update: from a couple of very concerned from mys sister-in-law PH co-workers, they are getting word that the CA BON is looking into past year's PH courses by college names. Those that are deemed having any flaws in the eyes of the CA examiners will be considered for possible nursing licenses issues.

They think the overseas larger universities and "accredited" ones are not immune to their findings. I think the CA nursing union will fight for their existing nurses already working, but the CA BON is even stronger to dictate enforcements. There are already so many ready to go nurses who replace nursing employees who go on 1-2 day strikes, so the hospital itself will not see much changes in their operations, just new people on each floor. There's easily 15-20 qualified nurses with experience (what nursing shortage) for every one nurse that stood in the protest lines to take over the existing nurses job that are asked to leave quietly or be terminated.

While there may be some political and financial plus and minuses, the unions will not win and will only make it worse. It will not lower wages much, as those are kind of set by the various nursing unions, but their benefits will be affected.

As in the case of my sister-in-law, she's soon having to go from making over $100,000 a year (working 3 days a week) to about 1/3 of that ($32-35,000 and working 5 days) as a LVN, as she cannot get her CA license renewed.

yes, lets take LVN for now:)

Yup! I guess that's what we can do for now. Not bad for a start. I'm planning to take LVN too while waiting for my CGFNS Credential Verification for NY. B'coz it will take a while for my credential verification. Which ever comes first. We have other option, If we will pass the LVN licensure exam we can take the LVN to RN course which is 30 units only. In this case we can continue our application to be an RN here in CA. I know it will take time, effort and money but I'm not loosing hope everything will pay off.

+ Add a Comment