CA College Rec. to gain enough Clinical Hours for RN endorsement in CA

Sour Lemon · Feb 8, 2021

1 hour ago, NewPANurseWantingCALicense said:

Hello all,

Does anyone know of California community college programs that an out-of-state BSN nurse could get additional clinical hours to meet registered nurse licensure requirements?

I already have a BSN (Dec 2020 for thousands of dollars in loans LOL), my NCLEX completed and my licensure in Pennsylvania, but my nursing program only had 675 clinical hours and it seems California SBON requires 864 hours. In the pandemic, I don't know what is being enforced or not since CA nursing students can actually work now. *If you have transferred to California with less clinical hours, could you let me know how many hours you had just so I have an idea since SBON doesn't respond.

Another knowledgeable nurse suggested I could apply to CA as an LVN and start working and join a college program to get additional hours. Does anyone know about this process and know of any programs? I would appreciate any advice.

A program is mentioned in this thread, but it appears to be geared towards foreign nurses. Your problem is similar, though ...so maybe they would be able to help?

Your hours must be in specific areas, so you'll still need to figure out exactly what kind(s) of hours you need.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Feb 8, 2021

Dominican University in San Rafael, CA (north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area) offers completion programs for foreign nursing graduates and I assume the same would apply to out-of-state nurses who did not meet CA BRN's clinical hours.

https://www.dominican.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/nursing/internationally-educated-nurses

NewPANurseWantingCALicense · Feb 8, 2021

Hello "Sour Lemon,"

Great! Thank you! I will do some research into the program. I really do not think it is right that someone could graduate form an nationally-accredited school, and practice in different states but not in others. I now am unsure of the purpose of the CCNE if their accreditation does not mean you are nationally-accredited. And then, the requirements are not easily found and the SBON's do not answer most of the time.

This is not directed to you, but just my thoughts on nurse licensing:

For engineering, my family member who studied abroad did one certification requirement/exam and is automatically certified for the entire United States. I feel we need to have national standards of practice, and it is understandable that people need to apply to each State SBON to be verified, pay a fee (even an expensive fee as a barrier for entry) but to have to jump through hoops and suggest they are "less educated" after being nationally certified, completing a associates/bachelors in nursing, paying THOUSANDS of dollars...., taking the nursing oath? They do not even have a clear path to 'rectify' the issue? I feel this is unethical.

1) What if someone's partner got a job in CA. The nurse spouse would have to give up their work?

2) What if there is a nation-wide pandemic of something like a new Ebola variant (without a vaccine) spreading like COVID-19 and there is a national emergency and we need to mobilize our healthcare workers quickly? Sort of like now?

SOLUTION: All states agree on nationalized standards. This is like when students move states and they are lost in the curriculum-- it really affects their progress for the same reason). They could allow a probationary practice to complete the hours in the meantime rather than block the person from having no way to work after taking the nursing oath, and taking the "nationally-recognized" NCLEX? They can still vet and verify nurses and charge for a barrier to entry for their "protectionism."

I also believe that separating nurses by state regulations takes away our power as the largest healthcare working force as nurses. We have strength in numbers.

Anyway, I had to vent because this is completely illogical and unethical-- in my opinion. I feel we could do better and the system should be improved, for us to be prepared for another outbreak-- of the many emerging diseases that we are aware of (and many that we aren't) because this was already devastating to everyone's health, to nurses who are now over-ratioed and to the economy.

NewPANurseWantingCALicense · Feb 8, 2021

16 minutes ago, juan de la cruz said:

Dominican University in San Rafael, CA (north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area) offers completion programs for foreign nursing graduates and I assume the same would apply to out-of-state nurses who did not meet CA BRN's clinical hours.

https://www.dominican.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/nursing/internationally-educated-nurses

Hello Juan De La Cruz, (Great name: reminds me of the 16th Century poet Sor Juana de La Cruz from Mexico who was ahead of her time),

Thank you for the information. I will definitely look into it. I am not sure if I can afford this also, as I just graduated and currently owe $63,000 plus interest in student loans and already have 2 bachelor's degrees. Life-- always interesting.

I will look into it and thanks for your help.

Here is a poem by Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz that I love-- 16th Century

Quéjase de la suerte: insinúa su aversión a los vicios y justifica su divertimento a las musas»

¿En perseguirme, mundo, qué interesas?
¿En qué te ofendo, cuando sólo intento
poner bellezas en mi entendimiento
y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas?

Yo no estimo tesoros ni riquezas,
y así, siempre me causa más contento
poner riquezas en mi entendimiento
que no mi entendimiento en las riquezas.

Yo no estimo hermosura, que vencida
es despojo civil de las edades,
ni riqueza me agrada fementida,

teniendo por mejor en mis verdades
consumir vanidades de la vida,
que consumir la vida en vanidades.

Kindest Regards and thanks.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Feb 8, 2021

Appreciate the poem! I love the Spanish language but unfortunately, I was born and spent a great deal of my young life in the Philippines where the colonizers didn't teach us Spanish and the friars who converted us to Christianity attempted to learn our native language first. Our ancestors were given Spanish names with their baptism which has been the tradition up to the present.

Nevertheless, the name I chose represent the Filipino "every man" sort of how "John Doe" is given to any anonymous, unnamed person in the US. Thanks to "Google translate", I was able to understand the poem and it is indeed beautiful. Good luck to you on your attempt to get a CA license. Have you talked to anyone in the BRN to determine if you even need additional courses?

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Feb 9, 2021

Posted this info in your other thread:

NewPANurseWantingCALicense · Feb 9, 2021

Hello,

Thank you for your efforts to help and for the information! You have been so helpful! I appreciate it! So glad there is a forum like this with people like you willing to help.

NewPANurseWantingCALicense · Feb 9, 2021

17 hours ago, juan de la cruz said:

Appreciate the poem! I love the Spanish language but unfortunately, I was born and spent a great deal of my young life in the Philippines where the colonizers didn't teach us Spanish and the friars who converted us to Christianity attempted to learn our native language first. Our ancestors were given Spanish names with their baptism which has been the tradition up to the present.

Nevertheless, the name I chose represent the Filipino "every man" sort of how "John Doe" is given to any anonymous, unnamed person in the US. Thanks to "Google translate", I was able to understand the poem and it is indeed beautiful. Good luck to you on your attempt to get a CA license. Have you talked to anyone in the BRN to determine if you even need additional courses?

Hello Juan,

I am also from a colony of Spain (and England) (Jamaica) and I do not know Spanish (fluently) as yet either, but I had taken classes and I am trying to learn! Wish I did know it also and I know all about the colonizers, LOL, Christianity and taking away of our culture, essentially. Good Philipino style "John Doe" name! Smart. Glad you liked the poem! I am a poetry fan, clearly.

Before I transferred to PA in 2019 (before the pandemic), I emailed them 3 times, got no response asking about my program, the clinical hours and courses (especially the clinical hours). I called the California SBON about 3 times or more and got someone after 1-2 hours wait on phone and the lady was disrespectful, angry, stated she cannot answer any of the questions until I apply, and hung up on me.

I have to say, the SBON operation seems very unprofessional to me. The length of time it takes for people to process paperwork in a pandemic-- up to 3 months and sometimes 6 months-- horrific. Of course, if feel if this were a private company, I doubt that behavior would fly-- perhaps the licensing needs to be contracted out to a third party private company. I had to contact the Department of Consumer Affairs (who manages the SBON) to make a formal complaint because they don't answer emails, they take 2 hours to answer calls and are literally screaming at people after we wait 1-2 hours to speak to them. It is literally abusive, in my opinion. So, the rep at the DCA said they have a lot of requests, and do no seem to be able to keep up so they cannot answer emails and they are "aware of the problems" LOL. She then emailed confirming she couldn't answer the questions and sent a link of nursing pre-requisite classes on the SBON website. They either need to streamline the process and make it less cumbersome (by having national standards that all SBONs use-- like an agreed-upon National Nurse Practice Act)-- then most could be verified by electronic records), and/or hire more workers, and have better management. I will say, maybe California is notoriously mismanaged. We are in an emergency situation of a pandemic where millions have died and this is how the SBON responds to a crisis situation. Thank goodness it wasn't a rabid variant of a hemorrhagic virus, but emerging diseases threaten us globally all the time, and we dropped our guard and it will happen again... it almost happened with Ebola.

In other fields like engineering, someone who wants to be an engineer does their licensing exam in the US and can work anywhere in the country. I don't know why in Nursing, it needs to be this complicated because when we need to be mobilized for an emergency.... this causes problems. In other countries, like Spain and Germany, all Spanish nurses from Spain have a national standard expected that they all uphold, same for German nurses-- it is not so different in each province that they can't move around. Europe has nurse education standards that Spain uses to help have uniformity.

TLDR: A Yes, I did talk to a rep at the CA SBON before I started my PA program, and they said they cannot tell me anything until I have a degree and apply LOL, then hung up on me. I asked my school advisor and they didn't know the answer about whether I could endorse to CA either. Thanks for all your help! I see that you are always trying to help others on here. I am just upset because it all seems cumbersome and illogical to me. But, thanks again.