Can you cancel your license

Sour Lemon · Dec 28, 2016

Lets say you move to another state and do not plan on ever coming back to the previous one, can you cancel your license? Or terminate it as if you were never a nurse in that state?

Why would you want to "cancel" it? I've seen them as "inactive", but not "poofed" into thin air as if they never were.

elkpark · Dec 28, 2016

If you just don't renew it when it's due, it will expire. But you can never go back to "as if you were never a nurse in that state;" the former license will always show up in a license search/verification.

heinz57 · Dec 28, 2016

Just put it to inactive status. When people save never, they usually end up eating those words sooner rather than later.

allnurses Guide · Dec 28, 2016

I am trying to figure out why anyone would want to do this? Why would one wish to make something they worked so hard for just disappear?

The only scenario I can think of is that something occurred that the person in question wished to keep a secret. Bear in mind most Nursing Boards ask questions on the application such as "Have you ever been licensed in another state?" Failure to answer this question honestly can be considered fraud and cost one their license in another state.

I could be totally wrong about this.

Hppy

Editorial Team / Admin · Dec 28, 2016

Hppy, that was my first thought as well. Letting a license expire is fine; I can think of no justifiable reason to make it like a license never existed.

Extra Pickles · Dec 28, 2016

I would never let a license lapse, or expire. Doing so means that if you ever did want to work in that state again you'd have to take the nclex again and reapply for another license and who would want to do that?

All you have to do is inform your board of nursing you want to make your registration inactive. You don't have to keep an active registration to keep a valid license. Activating an inactive registration is a whole world easier than reviving a dead license!

You can't erase the original license as though it wasn't ever issued. You did practice in that state and you did have an active license to practice and anyone has the right to look up that license online to verify that. It doesn't disappear nor should it.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Dec 28, 2016

Lets say you move to another state and do not plan on ever coming back to the previous one, can you cancel your license? Or terminate it as if you were never a nurse in that state?

I'm going to just assume you worded this awkwardly. Just let it expire.

MrChicagoRN, RN · Dec 28, 2016

In some states there is a difference between inactive and expired. Sometimes there is a fee for one, not with another to reactivate. Here is one state's definitions: Board of Nursing

I let my psych certification lapse about 14 years ago, thinking I wasn't going back there.

But you think you're out...and they puulll you right back in.

It would've been a lot simpler, and less work, to have just renewed it every 5 years.

Extra Pickles · Dec 28, 2016

I let my psych certification lapse about 14 years ago, thinking I wasn't going back there.
But you think you're out...and they puulll you right back in.
It would've been a lot simpler, and less work, to have just renewed it every 5 years.

The first renewal period after I'm dead and buried, that is the one I will let expire. Not before then!

elkpark · Dec 28, 2016

Doing so means that if you ever did want to work in that state again you'd have to take the nclex again and reapply for another license and who would want to do that?

Where on earth did that come from? Why would applying again for a license (in a state in which you were licensed in the past) be any different that applying for licensure by endorsement in any other state?

Editorial Team / Admin · Dec 28, 2016

I would never let a license lapse, or expire. Doing so means that if you ever did want to work in that state again you'd have to take the nclex again and reapply for another license and who would want to do that?

Please provide a source for this claim. NCLEX is a national exam; why would one be forced to take it again simply because a licenses lapsed in a state in which one was not working? Applying for licensure by endorsement for new states or following the state's procedures for reactivating an expired or inactive license is adequate and proper procedure.