California Frustrates Me

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Hi everyone,

I'm new. I'm just starting my prereqs for my ASN. My onnly problem is that I'm a full-time paramedic on a limited budget with a family to support and living in a state that couldn't give a rip.

So I don't know of any accredited distance education nursing schools accredited in CA. CA is also the only state that I know of in the whole US that doesn't have a paramedic to RN bridge program. This makes it practically impossible for paramedics to become RN's in this state anymore. The part that really gets my goat is that I missed it by a hair since I know someone who has just graduated from Excelsior this month and was 'grandfathered in' to be elgible to get his RN in this state.

I hope someone can tell me what's going on in this state that a paramedic can't even hope to move up anymore. We can't get into nursing schools, we can't get into PA schools. What did we do to tick whom off?

Are there any other options out there that I'm unaware of? Are there any plans in the mix to fix this issue?

Please, even if it's just a rumor you've heard, tell me about it because right now, there isn't even a light at the end of the tunnel for me. It is just totally impractical for me to go to any of the local nursing schools while I'm working four 12 hour shifts a week and still barely making ends meet.

Thanks,

Zach

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The part that really gets my goat is that I missed it by a hair since I know someone who has just graduated from Excelsior this month and was 'grandfathered in' to be elgible to get his RN in this state.

The issue with the grandfathering isn't the date that you graduate, but rather when you enrolled. Students are grandfathered in CA only if they enrolled by 12/6/03.

It's a frustrating situation, especially for medics who have to work long hours and multiple jobs just to support a family. I know that Excelsior is making some changes to the clinical portion of the ASN and I think it will help their standing with some of the state BON's, but I just don't know if anything can be done about CA. Given that the EC/CA BRN court battle was so long, drawn out, and bitter, I'm not too optimistic that they'll be able to make nice any time soon, unfortunately.

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Given that the EC/CA BRN court battle was so long, drawn out, and bitter, I'm not too optimistic that they'll be able to make nice any time soon, unfortunately.

Since you know about this and you're from the Lone Star state, it must've been a pretty big deal when it happened. I'm curious. I don't know anything about it. Can you expand a little for me?

Thanks,

Zach

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i think california is a lost cause for ec grads enrolling after the cut off date. it doesn't matter if you work for 10 years as a nurse in another state... they'll never give you equal footing with a new graduate nurse. as though you don't learn inifinitely more by doing the job for a couple of years than some clinical program where you might insert a foley or two and maybe start an iv. that's the state of clinical education in many bsn programs.

yes, it's sheer buffoonery, but we're talking about a group of control freaks in california who are IN CHARGE and HAVE CONTROL. yippee!

it really speaks of gross incompetence on the part of the board of california not to come up with a rational way of giving endorsement. there isn't even a process where endorsement candidates can petition based on years of sucessful practice in another state.

doh!

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it really speaks of gross incompetence on the part of the board of california not to come up with a rational way of giving endorsement. there isn't even a process where endorsement candidates can petition based on years of sucessful practice in another state.

doh!

Yup. A simple "five years or 12000 hours of acute care experience" would solve this problem.

Come on California, WAKE UP!

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Yup. A simple "five years or 12000 hours of acute care experience" would solve this problem.

Come on California, WAKE UP!

in retrospect, you've got to be kidding. someone who finished a traditional nursing school in california is way better qualified than some dirty ec grad with 5 years experience in acute care :). one can only imagine the hundreds of deaths that occured because ms. nursier-than-thou didn't supervise and weed out those not worthy ec grads. tsk.

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Specializes in LTAC, Telemetry, Thoracic Surgery, ED.

If it's in option then......There's always EC then work for the VA. As an EC grad you can work for the VA in any state (so I'm told) because they don't have to adhere to the same guidelines.

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I guess you could move to a different, less costly state.

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Since you know about this and you're from the Lone Star state, it must've been a pretty big deal when it happened. I'm curious. I don't know anything about it. Can you expand a little for me?

Thanks,

Zach

Here is a link to the CA BRN website news item concerning EC. I think it was such a huge deal at the time partly because CA was the first state to come out and refuse to license (initially or by endorsement) any graduate, regardless of pre-EC background or post-EC RN experience, who enrolled after a certain date.

http://www.rn.ca.gov/new/news.htm#excelsior2

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Here is a link to the CA BRN website news item concerning EC. I think it was such a huge deal at the time partly because CA was the first state to come out and refuse to license (initially or by endorsement) any graduate, regardless of pre-EC background or post-EC RN experience, who enrolled after a certain date.

http://www.rn.ca.gov/new/news.htm#excelsior2

Amazing... In adition to eliminating this option, California is the only state that I know of that has no option for paramedics to bridge over to RN with an accelerated and shortened RN school like they do for LVN's.

That has more to do with California attitudes toward paramedics than RN's, though. Unless you are willing to work 48 hours a week and go to school 40 hours a week, there just seems to be no way for a paramedic to become an RN.

Then the government wonders why the attrition rate for paramedics is so high. Once you've become a paramedic, you just can't seem to move up without getting out of the business alltogether. The snobery of the medical decision makers in this State is nauseating.

Thanks again,

Zach

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Specializes in LTC and MED-SURG.

I've read a lot of the threads Re: Excelsior vs California. I live in Georgia, but I'm originally from California, and who knows, may move home someday. Some months ago, I had an interesting telephone conversations with someone at California BON and I gathered from the conversations that it is NOT a hopeless situation for Excelsior graduates. The person I spoke with said that situations were examined and handled on a case-by-case basis. Any feedback???

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

this is the only state that i know of that allows a cna (with stipulations) to challenge the nclex pn..besides the military medics who should be able to take the exam.

amazing... in adition to eliminating this option, california is the only state that i know of that has no option for paramedics to bridge over to rn with an accelerated and shortened rn school like they do for lvn's.

that has more to do with california attitudes toward paramedics than rn's, though. unless you are willing to work 48 hours a week and go to school 40 hours a week, there just seems to be no way for a paramedic to become an rn.

then the government wonders why the attrition rate for paramedics is so high. once you've become a paramedic, you just can't seem to move up without getting out of the business alltogether. the snobery of the medical decision makers in this state is nauseating.

thanks again,

zach

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