Nclex Payment

smuggy · Jul 5, 2009

that problem is why there are nclex application centers established to help nurses. they can assist you with that stuff for a fee.

i am sorry to disagree with you. these nclex processing centers are for nurses who are lazy enough to ask question first before actually doing something about it. there are banks such as pnb and ucpb that will allow you to buy bankdrafts for $5-8 per bankdraft. we have thousands of nurses from decades ago who have experienced difficulty in paying the board, cgfns, or pearsonvue. they were able to pass the cgfns and nclex w/o the help of this processing centers. and they are all in the us now.

the funny thing with these processing centers is that the nurse will still be the one to go and fall in line in their school for education verification, to the local licensure agency for license verification, and the local police agency for fingerprinting. they will just prepare the bankdarft, receive the nurse's documents, and send it to the appropriate board. oh, by the way, it is also the nurse who will pay for everything else.

all i'm saying is, let's encourage our colleagues to be independent. it's not as hard as they think it is.

Hushdawg · Jul 7, 2009

the funny thing with these processing centers is that the nurse will still be the one to go and fall in line in their school for education verification, to the local licensure agency for license verification, and the local police agency for fingerprinting. they will just prepare the bankdarft, receive the nurse's documents, and send it to the appropriate board. oh, by the way, it is also the nurse who will pay for everything else.
all i'm saying is, let's encourage our colleagues to be independent. it's not as hard as they think it is.

of course the nurse will have to gather the documents. very few schools will permit someone to get tor and such for a third party, also how can anyone but the nurse get fingerprinting?

the major advantage of the application centers are:

1) nurse is informed of precisely what he/she needs to do and when it needs to be done and in what order updated with bon/brn requirements.

2) nurse is protected from making mistakes on applications (research has shown that 20-30% of pinoy nurses make errors on applications costing up to $200 for re-applications or lost fees from doing things out of order).

3) nurse benefits from corporate rates for shipping costs and bank draft fees.

4) nurse is allowed to be independent because he/she does not have to sign up to a staffing firm or employment agency for these services and be indentured to them for a cut of his/her pay for the next couple of years.

as with any company a nurse should investigate the application center to make sure that it is well-run and established. they should investigate the structure and make sure that it's not something that the center is doing just "on the side" like some review centers do. those type of application centers have ended up costing the nurse a lot more than he/she saves.

i understand where you are coming from, but research shows that because of the nature of nclex and the us licensure process not being adjusted or taking factors into consideration for international applicants that nurses will always stand to lose far too much time and/or money until ncsbn and the state boards recognize the flaws in the system and fix them.

the research i refer to is part of a 6-year study and the results are in the process of being published here in the philippines.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 7, 2009

Hushdog I can see where you are coming from but I have found the paperwork for the most to be clear in what is required and the applicant does need to show that they have a clear understanding on the English language as they will once in the US be able to work in a safe manner and they will not have an agency working with them checking they are completing forms etc right when working

Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN · Jul 7, 2009

One of the complaints most RNs make is the amount of paper work a nurse has to complete. I agree the NCLEX applications I have seen are very basic and don't require critical thinking. Having a third party to do this for you does not say much about the applicants communication skills. How are they going to practice in the USA when they have to pass on critical patient information. The nurses who immigrated before could complete this task, before any internet communications.

Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN · Jul 7, 2009

Of course the nurse will have to gather the documents. Very few schools will permit someone to get TOR and such for a third party, also how can anyone but the nurse get fingerprinting?
The major advantage of the application centers are:
1) Nurse is informed of precisely what he/she needs to do and when it needs to be done and in what order updated with BON/BRN requirements.
2) Nurse is protected from making mistakes on applications (Research has shown that 20-30% of pinoy nurses make errors on applications costing up to $200 for re-applications or lost fees from doing things out of order).
3) Nurse benefits from corporate rates for shipping costs and bank draft fees.
4) Nurse IS allowed to be independent because he/she does not have to sign up to a staffing firm or employment agency for these services and be indentured to them for a cut of his/her pay for the next couple of years.
As with any company a nurse should investigate the application center to make sure that it is well-run and established. They should investigate the structure and make sure that it's not something that the center is doing just "on the side" like some review centers do. Those type of application centers have ended up costing the nurse a lot more than he/she saves.
I understand where you are coming from, but research shows that because of the nature of NCLEX and the US Licensure process not being adjusted or taking factors into consideration for international applicants that nurses will always stand to lose far too much time and/or money until NCSBN and the state boards recognize the flaws in the system and fix them.
The research I refer to is part of a 6-year study and the results are in the process of being published here in the Philippines.

What flaws in the system?

Hushdawg · Jul 8, 2009

Silverdragon, honestly that all depends on the state one is applying.

Some states are relatively easy to handle the application but others are intensely more complex.

Now practically all states are requiring CES and that process can be very scary for nurses.

One of the biggest problems is terminology. As I'm sure you are aware being in the UK there is a difference between British English and American English.

Same thing applies in the Philippines even though Pinoys speak English fluently (especially Pinoy nurses).

A lot of confusion comes about from this simple fact and the fact that even though American and Pinoy nurses must use the same core application forms for getting licensure, the overall process for each is completely different.

My hope is that all nurses can simply focus on their careers and not have to deal with all the non-medical paperwork that comes with licensure.

Perhaps one of these days the application process will be more centralized and less complex.

Until then, nurses will continue to waste time and money on these applications just hammering away at them until they get it straight.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 8, 2009

I have completed for 2 states and CES as well as CVS and I didn't find the paperwork that daunting. Yes there are differences between UK English and US English colour and color is a good example but you can see and understand what they mean. We have had members post on here to clarify something and have completed paperwork for free and used the money that you would need to pay an agency for something different.

smuggy · Jul 9, 2009

The instructions for NCLEX application are fairly simple as well as with CGFNS CES, CP, and VisaScreen. Any college graduate, should be able to follow those. Yes, they may be able to save a few hundred for the bulk courier, but there are no "bulk" bankdraft processing. Bankdrafts are made and paid individually at $5-8 each depending on the bank.

Ginger's Mom, MSN, RN · Jul 9, 2009

I looked at the instructions, they looked pretty easy, but if you had questions there is a booklet that explains everything.

Being a nurse your life is full of many more complex forms, OASIS, MDS, insurance forms. If there nurses can't fill out these forms which is about there own personal information, how can they complete a complex nursing assessment?

smuggy · Jul 9, 2009

actually that is not entirely true, if your license is close to expiration in ca and you have not yet gotten a ssn you can extend/renew the license if you meet certain criteria.
many states will issue licenses, not just ny. but of course, there are in fact more than 15 states that issue a valid & active license even w/o an ssn. the thread i was replying to was inquiring about ny.
almost every single state now requires ces or cp certification before being able to obtain eligibility. now more than ever it is more important to focus on exactly where you want to be and apply directly to that state. what if that state does not accept foreign applications (i just forgot the name of that state)? the point is, we know why filipino nurses are applying in california. it is cheap and less paperwork. up until 2006, i saw nurses leaving for the us by the dozen. license issuance in california was not an issue then, because they will get it there. but now, i believe we should discourage nurses to apply for nclex in california. with the retrogression, they might reach the maximum allowable time (which is 8 years) to get an ssn.
if the process seems difficult (and for most nurses it is) then you can seek the assistance of a professional application center to help rather than wasting time and struggling over documents written by lawyers and bureaucrats.

hahaha! i am beginning to think you are one of them but that's okay. i wish they will advise the nurses to try states other than california.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Jul 9, 2009

This is just my opinion but I am surprised that nurses in the Philippines even needed third-party assistance with their NCLEX applications. During my time, we applied for CGFNS and NCLEX on our own and that was before this internet age when information is readily available at the click of a mouse. Back then, we had to wait for application packets to come from the mail. Bottomline is, you have to learn to read instructions and these instructions are written not to confuse but to help the applicant. I can understand seeking advice from others who have been there and done that but to pay for a service so that the nurse applicant would not have to bother with reading instructions is ridiculous. That is yet another ammunition US nurses who are against foreign nurse recruitment can use to label Filipino nurses as incompetent in the English language.

I am now licensed in 3 US states of jurisdiction and have not sought the help of any third parties apart from having a relative in the Philippines wait in line at the transcript window at the Registrar's Office of the university I attended for my BSN. If I could do it, so could anyone else.

Hushdawg · Jul 9, 2009

I am not trying to beat a dead horse but I just want to reiterate the statistics based on the Philippines alone:

FACT: 20-30% of all applicants make mistakes in the application process

FACT: The average mistake causes approximately $200 in losses to the applicant (not to mention the delay in time of up to a year which NCSBN says accounts for a high number of NCLEX failures)

FACT: State Boards in the USA frequently lose documentation including bank drafts

Those three facts alone stand, we can argue over the causes and such back and forth but these figures are very real.

Silverdragon: Color and Colour are very minor differences; since I've been living in the Philippines for two years I have had to make major adjustments to the way I speak in order to be understood. We are still speaking English words and pronouncing them correctly but the meanings are very different, the sentence structure is very different and it is not something that is easily addressed.

I have friends in different businesses all over the Philippines that are all highly educated individuals from US, Canada, UK and Australia and we have frequently talked about how amazing it is that Filipinos speak English better than many native speakers and yet it is so hard to effectively communicate because the meanings are so different. This is something that IELTS and TOEFL somehow do not capture or correct because TECHNICALLY the english is correct, but the practical use is so different that it causes confusion.

I've adjusted so much to the Pinoy way of English that it takes 5-10 minutes of a Skype call to my parents and friends in the USA to re-adjust to the US way of English!