CA Board of Nursing

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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.

Hi can i have your email address to ask about how you start to apply for the exam in NCLEX-pn po??? Thankyou and Godbless

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Specializes in Emergency.
This is not about educational standards. This is the California Board of Nursing saying enough is enough with the foreign educated nursing applicants from the Philippines in a climate when there are so many unemployed nurses who went to California nursing programs and are not able to find jobs. Those of you who are US residents or US citizens who went out of your way to go to nursing school in the Philippines thinking that it will be a smarter move (cheaper tuition, cheaper cost of living, no wait list or admission lottery) are the "collateral damage" to this scheme.

First, there's no way the Board of Registered Nursing knows which schools in the Philippines are substandard. They are going by official transcript of records, clinical rotation records (or Related Learning Experience records), and comleted OR, Nursery, and Delivery Room cases. All these documents can look good on paper. The schools do not submit qualifications of professors and instructors nor the passing rate of the program on the National Licensure Examination for RN's in the Philippines (a true barometer of how good the school is per Philippine standards).

Second, nursing programs across the United States DO NOT require their students to complete a set number of first assist in the OR, umbilical cord stump dressing for newborns in the Nursery, nor performing actual birthing assistance to women who are delivering including cutting umbilical cords of newborns and making sure an intact placenta is delivered. These are specialty rotations in the US and are not part of the basic nursing program whether they are Associates or Bachelors. It is, however, required by the Philippine government through the Board of Nursing there and the Professional Regulation Commission which administers the licensure exam in the Philippines. You DO NOT graduate from your nursing program in the Philippines without completing the required number of OR, Nursery, and Labor and Delivery cases.

Third, nursing students across ALL nursing programs in the Philippines have concurrent clinical rotations with lecture. Level 2 is Maternal-Child Nursing and students do rotate in Mother-Baby Units and Peds Wards during Level 2. Level 3 is Med-Surg Nursing and Psych Nursing and students do rotate in Med-Surg wards and Psych wards during Level 3. Level 4 is Nursing Managament, Research, and Intensive Clinical Practicum. In addition, nursing programs in the Philippines provide Community Health Nursing lectures concurrent with placement for practicum in a community setting, something basic nursing programs do not offer in the US as a standard. Schools in the Philippines arrange ALL clinical rotations, the students do not seek out clinical sites.

The completion of OR, Nursery, and Labor and Delivery cases are NEVER concurrent with lectures. These requirements are above and beyond the clinical rotations that are already provided concurrently with lectures. There are many students in each nursing program and only a few students can be placed in the OR to first assist with an instructor supervising all day to finish the cases. There are only a certain number of deliveries that occur in a single hospital so students have to take take time away from their normal school schedule to be able to perform actual deliveries and care for the umbilical cord stump on the newborn on any single day. Some programs arrange these during the summer months when school is not in session.

The bottomline is if this rule stays as the "new" requirement in the State of California, only a very small amount of graduates from the Philippines, if any at all, will qualify to be licensed in California anymore. This move on California's part is not suprising. I see it as part of the weeding out of any more RN applicants who will further saturate the large number of nurses in the state who are struggling to find jobs. In a way, graduates from Philippine nursing programs lost due to a technicality the same way graduates of Excelsior nursing programs are not eligible to be licensed in California. It is painful (and upsetting) to accept for those affected but there are 49 other states that have not made the same decision.

I see this is an old thread, but I'm glad I found somebody who knows the Philippine Nursing program well. I get miffed whenever I see posters saying our country's curriculum is insufficient, not competitive enough, or not up to par with the US, BECAUSE THAT'S NOT TRUE. The problem in the Philippines is that these standards are not strictly implemented BUT there are schools that have taken care of their reputation for a very long time. To post a general statement is unfair and misleading. It breaks my heart when I see comments by US nurses demeaning Filipino nurses based on the hasty generalizations fellow Filipinos post here. I mean come on, we all know which schools are substandard. Why go there anyway?

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JujuBente can you please tell me the results did you been approved for Pierce for those classes,because I have in plan to apply for this season ?

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I did apply and I got a rejection letter from Pierce college. They have a waiting list and a lottery.

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I did apply and I got a rejection letter from Pierce college. They have a waiting list and a lottery.

Was the rejection just from having to be placed on a wait list or was there other issues that made your application get turned down?

Any indication on how many are on the wait list or how years it could take?

Was the lottery for just those needing to the deficiency courses or did it include those already enrolled students needing to take the same courses but not on a deficiency basis?

Were you able to find another school to re-take the deficient courses or still looking around?

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i would like to know as well if i can take my Masters in nursing can i take my NCLEX for California... i might take it online for USA since my GPA is above 3.0 or GTU since my gpa is above 3.0

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