accidently let my license lap!!!!

[anxious in georgia]

Help, without my reminder card, which I had received for the last 30 years, I inadvertently let my RN license lapse. I just realized it last week and sent in all the needed documentation to get it reinstated. All I can get out of the Board of Nursing is the same old sterile it may take 5 weeks to get done, no way around it. My question is has anyone else had this happen this year and how long did it actually take to get reinstated? I am luckily a saver so money is not a big issue, although it will take a bite out of my savings account. I just feel so darn embarrassed and so bad for my unit having to beg for help. Any suggestions............at all?

[anxious in georgia]

I should mention this is in Georgia, although it is in the title

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

It happened to me in Maine, the mail hadn't caught up with me after a move, and I forgot.

I inadvertently had worked a shift without a renewed license. I notified my BON and my employer, drove to the state capital and did the required paperwork and was able to renew the same day. BUT I had to sign a paper pleading guilty to working without a license and pay the fine before they would renew me. If I had contested they would not have renewed.

So be as honest and forthright as you can, and go to the BON physically. Be polite and just sooo nice, and jump through whatever hoops they have. Perhaps your hospital will help you put some pressure on the BON since it will be a real hardship for them to do without you for 5 weeks.

[anxious in georgia]

Thanks, It is not that easy here. I had to get finger printed, provide a notarized explaination, something from HR proving I still work, get a mug shot and send it to them and it still takes 5 weeks so they say.

Now if I was a doctor or a PA it would take less than a week, fees waved. So much for the nurse lobby in Georgia.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

Thanks, It is not that easy here. I had to get finger printed, provide a notarized explaination, something from HR proving I still work, get a mug shot and send it to them and it still takes 5 weeks so they say.

Now if I was a doctor or a PA it would take less than a week, fees waved. So much for the nurse lobby in Georgia.

From other posts on here it doesn't sound like Georgia is very nurse friendly.

[cb_rn]

GA BON is lousy. Sorry, its a fact. It took 6 weeks to accomplish what many states can do on a walk in basis and every single potential employer I talked to in GA before getting my endorsement license warned me.

[anxious in georgia]

You have that right. I did beg them and got a temporary license so that we could treat our patients. It is good until Oct, the real one is still pending, 5 weeks later.