corpsman to LVN??

[doc86]

Hi

im close to being honorably discharged from the united states navy, im looking at getting a job as an lvn to actully have a medical job while im going to Nursing school, im kinda of confused as to how the transition works, do i need the college credits to challenge a board or can i just challenge with my experience as a corpsman, ive been reading alot of links and it says millitary service in a hospital is good, also 1 year of bedside care, ive done all that, and im also currently doing the line corpsman thing in iraq. Im just confused on what i need to do i love the job and i dont want to get rusty, also any advice on NICU/ICU nursing would be awsome.

-doc D

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Not all states allow you to qualify to challenge NCLEX. What state are you moving to? I think California allows you to take the LPN exams with those qualifications. But you're probably going to have to check with the Board of Nursing in the state in which you live. The tab in the upper right hand corner labeled "Resources" lists the boards of nursing.

Good luck!

[elkpark]

Unless things have changed recently, OK and CA are the only two states that allow military medical personnel to challenge the NCLEX-PN without completing an LPN education program (I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong! :) Things do change all the time). There are limits on which categories of medics/corpsmen/etc. qualify, so you would need to check the specific language in the OK and CA BON rules (accessible through this site, as Tweety noted) about whether you would qualify.

Also, if you get licensed that way, I believe that most other states will not recognize those licenses if you apply for licensure in another state by endorsement, so you're pretty much locked into just those two states. Of course, if you continued on to complete an approved LPN-to-RN program and pass the NCLEX-RN, you would be able to endorse that license to any state.

There have been some recent threads about LPNs working in ICUs, and the general consensus seemed to be that very few ICUs/NICUs use any LPNs (and in the few that do have LPNs, they are usually LPNs that have been there for many years and are being allowed to stay -- but no more LPNs are being hired into those units), because so much of what needs doing in ICUs is outside the LPN scope of practice. If you know that's your primary area of interest, you'll probably want to pursue RN education and licensure (there is no state that allows anyone to challenge the RN boards -- you would have to complete some kind of approved RN education program, whether that would be going right into a generic RN program, or getting licensed as an LPN and then completing an LPN-to-RN program).

Thank you for your service, and best wishes! :)