Certification Frustration

Joan Z · Oct 16, 2008

There have been a few threads on the wait to get the authorization to test, but your wife sounds like she has other problems with the certifying body.

One of my classmates waited forever to hear from AANP (they did get that CC charged pretty quick), finally heard they were missing a piece--after having told her originally everything was there and she just had to wait. She called and told them she was calling the Better Business Bureau. After that rapidly got authorization to test. She is planning to test in a couple of weeks, months after her classmates.

It sounds like her creds are good, why the reluctance to do another interview?

jeepgirl, LPN, NP · Oct 16, 2008

Why is going through that company taking so long? The PNCB took just a day or two after I got all my required docs in. That is CRAZY and I think something needs to be done.

emtneel · Oct 16, 2008

i didn't have any problems with the ANCC and that's what my Profs told me to go to. They said in the past people have had problems with AANP, with requesting a lot more for the application.

worm9 · Oct 16, 2008

Joan, interesting that you mention them asking for more information. My wife had the same thing happen. When she first submitted her packet in May they told her she was good, then came back a few weeks later and said they needed transcripts, her school had already sent the transcripts to AANP, so she had to get a new set of transcripts and mail them off.

BBB is a good idea, did they call the national BBB or one in TX?

I was venting about this to a friend who made a interesting comment: "Kinda scary that the organization in charge of certifying the people who take care of us seems so unorganized and unprofessional."

Reason for the reluctance in interview - they are going to fly her out to Colorado (we are in Alabama). They want to make sure that she her certification or at least a test scheduled. My concern is how long they will be willing to wait and how long the certification process is going to continue to take. They have been great working with her so far. Luckily she has RN experience in their specialty which is a big plus for them, plus the fact she is a new grad they can train her.

Hopefully she will hear something from ANCC soon.

I know AANP is big with lobbying in Washington, but if they don't get organized with NPs they won't have anything to lobby for. I think one of the things that bugged me about AANP was the comment about "AANP is separate from AANP certification" I would think if that is true and with AANP certifications problems, AANP would want to fix that since their name is connected.

worm9 · Oct 16, 2008

I found AANP on the Austin, TX BBB site:

BBB Rating: Unsatisfactory

http://austin.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=40&bbb=0825&firm=58494

jeepgirl, LPN, NP · Oct 16, 2008

well, isn't that interesting?

aublaura · Oct 16, 2008

Hopefully your wife will get all this resolved soon and take her exam and pass. I think it's very sweet that you are getting involved and helping her with this frustration!

emtneel · Oct 16, 2008

Reason for the reluctance in interview - they are going to fly her out to Colorado (we are in Alabama). They want to make sure that she her certification or at least a test scheduled. My concern is how long they will be willing to wait and how long the certification process is going to continue to take. They have been great working with her so far. Luckily she has RN experience in their specialty which is a big plus for them, plus the fact she is a new grad they can train her.

hmm. what job is this in Colorado? I am from Colorado, new grad FNP and had to move away because there are practically no jobs there. There is one job that is on pretty much every agency's list in a certain part of Colorado. I interviewed for it and was not interested for several reasons.

Is your wife FNP?? If so i find it very odd that they would fly her from another state esp. being a new grad, because there are tons of NPs in CO that cannot find jobs. So just be wary... you can PM me if you want and i can be more specific.

Also as a new grad in CO you cannot write prescriptions, you have to work for a yr first.

Dr. Tammy, FNP/GNP-C · Oct 20, 2008

I found AANP on the Austin, TX BBB site:
BBB Rating: Unsatisfactory
http://austin.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=40&bbb=0825&firm=58494

Very nice. A customer-oriented for profit (probably under the guise of a NFP) organization that knows how to care for those who pay their salary.

ANPFNPGNP · Oct 23, 2008

I'm sure this has been asked in some way before, but I can't find a thread close enougth to this issue ...
My wife graduated in May and sent paperwork in to AANP (I bet you can see where this is headed now)
They charged our cc within about a week of her sending paperwork. We never heard anything from them. She called 2 or 3 times a day and only got voicemail, which was full so she could not leave a message. Send emails, with no responses. This went on for several weeks. I emailed the AANP Director of Communication, her response was AANP is separate from AANP certification, nothing she could do. Finally my wife gets through to the Director of certication, who tells her (quite rudely) that her certification will be sent by the end of the week - problem is she hasn't even been scheduled to take the test yet!
Finally test approval comes in, she takes the test second week in Aug. - computer gives her the bad news. So she prepares to study more and retest. Problem is she doesn't have a clue what CEs to take because she has still not received her official results (10 weeks later - suppose to take 2 weeks). She called, got full voicemails, finally got a response from email. Was told her results went out, verified her address, a second copy of 'certification' would be sent, still haven't received it.
In the mean time she has had phone interviews for potentially her dream job (would require relocation, no biggie). Problem is face to face interview has had to be put off because no results have come back and she hasn't even begun the proces to retest. She did send application in to ANCC (charged cc already). I'm guessing the process will be about the same.
Sorry for the long vent ... does anyone have any suggestions on who she can contact to get some answers? Its quite frustrating that 3 years of advanced school is completed (with honors). And now its been 6 months with barely any communication from the certiication board. The thought has crossed my mind to contact a lawyer since they have taken our money, but so far failed to follow through with the services. Hopefully it doesn't go that far (that's why I'm here).
Thanks for reading this long post and any help.

She needs to just take the ANCC test and forget about the AANP test. I've taken tests from both organizations and the ANCC was far more organized than the AANP. I would start calling the ANCC to find out how the application process is progressing.

westcoastgirl · Oct 25, 2008

the AANP certification people are in Texas and horribly unorganized and unprofessional from my personal experience as well as several of my graduating class.

If she's already applied for ANCC exam I would focus on that. Or you can spend $$$ calling Texas daily which is what I had to do and still it dragged out for months