Re: corpsman to LVN??
Unless things have changed recently, OK and CA are the only two states that allow military medical personnel to challenge the NCLEX-PN without completing an LPN education program (I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong!
Things do change all the time). There are limits on which categories of medics/corpsmen/etc. qualify, so you would need to check the specific language in the OK and CA BON rules (accessible through this site, as Tweety noted) about whether you would qualify.
Also, if you get licensed that way, I
believe that most other states will not recognize those licenses if you apply for licensure in another state by endorsement, so you're pretty much locked into just those two states. Of course, if you continued on to complete an approved LPN-to-RN program and pass the NCLEX-RN, you would be able to endorse
that license to any state.
There have been some recent threads about LPNs working in ICUs, and the general consensus seemed to be that very few ICUs/NICUs use any LPNs (and in the few that do have LPNs, they are usually LPNs that have been there for many years and are being allowed to stay -- but no more LPNs are being hired into those units), because so much of what needs doing in ICUs is outside the LPN scope of practice. If you know that's your primary area of interest, you'll probably want to pursue RN education and licensure (there is
no state that allows anyone to challenge the RN boards -- you would have to complete some kind of approved RN education program, whether that would be going right into a generic RN program, or getting licensed as an LPN and then completing an LPN-to-RN program).
Thank you for your service, and best wishes!
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