Licensure by endorsement or go to Florida to test?

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Apr 19, 2017

Sorry but you're wrong and I stand by my comment above. I know that I'm 100% correct. Check the NCSBN website. You can take your NCLEX exam ANYWHERE in the US, and even in some other countries in the world that offer the NCLEX exam, but your license is still only in the state where you graduated, unless you later apply for endorsement. Plus, I've been though it (as I explained in my post above).

You are mistaken. The reason you were licensed in Colorado initially is not because you graduated from school there but because you submitted your initial application for licensure by examination to the Colorado BoN. I graduated with many nurses who never obtained licenses in the state our school was located in but applied directly to the states they would be working in.

DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN · Apr 19, 2017

Sorry but you're wrong and I stand by my comment above. I know that I'm 100% correct. Check the NCSBN website. You can take your NCLEX exam ANYWHERE in the US, and even in some other countries in the world that offer the NCLEX exam, but your license is still only in the state where you graduated, unless you later apply for endorsement. Plus, I've been though it (as I explained in my post above).

I absolutely see that you could have had that experience endorsing but it doesn't precisely apply here. Authorization To Test (ATT) is given by the BON where one expects/hope for initial licensure. I am sorry for your difficult experience but you did not actually apply to California upon graduation. You took the exam there. Had you applied upon graduation it seems you would have been denied and not received ATT based on your endorsement experience.

I absolutely applied directly for initial licensure to another state, not where I graduated, received ATT from that BON for my NCLEX-RN. It was extremely simple. Hence my previous advice to the OP to investigate this for herself. Contact the Florida BON yourself to avoid difficulties.

cnsrn1 · Apr 19, 2017

Hello all! I am the OP. I have spent the last couple days reading through the Florida SBON website and contacting multiple people to clarify everything. I thought I would give you all an update!

First of all, I have been confirmed by Pearson VUE and Florida that I can indeed test in PA (where I live and go to school) but as long as I register through Florida state board and Pearson vue, i can technically take the test at any of the authorized testing centers and receive my florida license that way. Because I am registering through Florida, I will get a Florida license even though I am physically testing in PA.

Second, there are requirements for licensure in Florida, just as there are with all states. For instance, for PA, we had to complete a child abuse certification class. For Florida, there was a 2 hour preventing medical error class (which after completing, I realized may only be necessary for renewal, but too much education is never a bad thing). And there is a whole fingerprinting process that I completed as well.

Third, I have since sat down and discussed everything with my program director. He was very helpful and walked through the website again with me to confirm all my research. The only thing I am unclear on at this point is sending my transcripts. There is a form and address to send them to, but must I wait for all grades to be processed? That takes a little while after I officially pass this last semester, and I want all my requirements sent in and ready to go so I can get my ATT without prolonging the process. I am going to contact the BON about this tomorrow.

Thank you all for your insight and knowledge to help me work through this. Many of you have been very helpful with your posts. Thank you!

VegGal, BSN, RN · Apr 20, 2017

I absolutely see that you could have had that experience endorsing but it doesn't precisely apply here. Authorization To Test (ATT) is given by the BON where one expects/hope for initial licensure. I am sorry for your difficult experience but you did not actually apply to California upon graduation. You took the exam there. Had you applied upon graduation it seems you would have been denied and not received ATT based on your endorsement experience. .........

You're right, DolceVita. I was licensed in CO after graduating from a school there, although I took the test in CA. But I do understand what you and everyone else were saying - you get your license from the state you apply to, no matter where you take the NCLEX, not the state where you went to school.

In my case though, because California's board's requirements were different from Colorado's, I still wouldn't have been licensed even if I had applied to them for licensure immediately after graduating, instead of taking the NCLEX as a Colorado graduate.

Thanks for the explanation.

FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN · Apr 20, 2017

To be fair, the OP says that she asked her "advisor." In a lot of nursing programs (most? all?), the academic advisors are not nurses -- they advise students on academic matters like how many credits are needed to graduate, which general ed courses will meet the requirements for graduation, that kind of thing, but they don't know much about how nursing works once you get out of school. Sort of like expecting your HR person at work to understand all the details of nursing licensure -- they get that the nurses have to have licenses to be able to work, but it's mostly a blur beyond that point ... I wonder it that might be what happened with the OP.

A nursing advisor should know about licensure requirements as part of their job, to advise nursing students.

They don't need to know about nursing. But they do need to know about the procedure of getting licensed.

I agree with Chare, the advisor did not do her job properly, unless the student misunderstood the advisor's meaning, and that kind of stuff happens all the time.