Frustrated with BON

Oh man, don't get me started w/ the BON. I apologize in advance, this is long.

I went to an LPN program in LA, that due to some restructuring of the school, our program went from being 16 months long, to 20 months. I was planning on graduating and moving to TX so opted to just apply for TX license. Nope, couldn't do it. Tx BON said that my program did not have enough clinical or theory hours (forget which now). WTH?? I was told that if I worked for a year, I could then apply for endorsement. So that's what I did. Only, I worked about 2 yrs before I applied again.

I applied, paid most of the fees, got the temporary permit, just had to get fingerprinted and send that in. Dumb me, life happened, and the next thing I knew, the three months had passed, and the temp permit was no longer valid, and I never got fingerprinted. Called BON, said that I would have to reapply. Soo, I paid the fees (again), got fingerprinted, sent that in, and waited. And waited. And waited.

I called them up after almost 2 months, just shortly after Katrina. Informed by BON that there was an influx of evacuees and emergency license requests, it could take up to 6 months to hear about my license. Couldn't get another temporary, as that's only issued once. So I called and checked the site every week for four months. Nothing. The last time I called to find out what was going on, was informed that they had no record of me applying. I lost it. Went off on the person, then broke down crying.

Several months passed, and hubby and I just moved to San Antonio w/o me having a license. I applied again. Within 2 months, saw my name on the BON site (woo hoo!!!!!), but the license never showed up. Called and asked, told me don't worry about it, if you don't have it in 6 months, you can then request another one.

I'm estranged from my mother, and one day she just shows up at my door (still trying to figure out how she found me), and she has my TX license. They sent my license to the address from when I originally applied in nursing school (I had moved several times since then). They envelope even said to not forward the mail, but it had been forwared to her.

So, now I just try and make sure I stay under the radar with them. I don't want to deal w/ any more headaches...lol.

On a little side note, after I got my license, my first job was at one of the military hospitals here. I went in to do my physical and lab work, no problem. Went back the next day to get the results, they couldn't find them. Was asked if I was sure if I had them done. Umm yeah, this big bruise on my ac wasn't from an accident. So, they draw my blood again. I come back the next day, same thing. WTH. So I'm sitting around, waiting for my blood to be drawn, and was looking at the labels for the tubes (gave them to me this time for some reason) and as I'm looking down at them, I see that they have me listed under my maiden name and as a dependent of my father (which I had not used that name nor been a dependent for over 10 yrs). Sure enough, when they pull that info up, there's my past two lab results. Turns out the employee health nurse had entered my info wrong, then proceeded to inform me that she could not correct the info. I had to jump through hoops to get that mess straightened out. When I came home that day and told hubby about what happened, he asked me "Do you ever get the feeling that you're not supposed to work in Texas?" Kinda.

If you are from a compact state, I would just use my compact license here in Texas, never bother with that Texas license. Compact license is as good as Texas one. Your employer don't care.