Foreign nurses application ISSUES in a nutshell?

[fjellgren]

So I heard and read incredible rumours surrounding the tightening and iron handling by the Cali BRN with regards to foreign educated or out of state educated nurses... Can someone please give me a "in a nutshell" discussion about this?

Also, will I be able to reinstate my California RN license? I was educated in a foreign country and got my Cali license in early 2008. Got a Colo. license and worked there for almost 3 years and since middle of last year, I have been practicing here in Florida.

Just month ago, I thought of reinstating my license in Cali. BUT these rumours started springing up and I was kinda caught by suprise especially that apparently even reinstatement for us foreign educated nurses is now like threading a needle with a shaky hand.

Thanks for any responses!

[BennyRNCA]

Not rumors at all, all harsh realities for many foreign educated grads and nurses, as many are not meeting CA BON minimum requirements that have been on the books as written policies since 1987.

CA BON is cracking down hard on many applicants. You have to basically be able to pass CA's requirements, even if you're trying to endorse any out-of-state RN license. You have submit your college transcripts and there stands a very high chance, it will be denied.

Depending on which country you got your degree from, it ranges from not having taken the clinicals and the theory section in the same semester, not months or years later (concurrency issues) or lacking in certain courses or lacking sufficient hours. It doesn't matter if you have 1,000's of hours of experience, it will always fall back to your original education.

This affects just about every country, even those from the UK, Russia, Phillipines, China, India, etc. With the high unemployment of new grads and even experienced nurses in CA alone, I don't think you find CA BON budging off their recent enforcements of the various 25 year old rules.

You do have the option of making up those deficient courses, but realize you'll be competing with already enrolled students on a very limited open slots for foreign students, with an excepted time frame of about 18-24 months or longer to complete those.

You could ask this same question in the "World Nursing" forum and under the "Nurse Registration" section, just take a peek over there, you'll see plenty of foreign students all caught up in this scenario. Sad, but true.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

OP, your case is a bit different. You got a California license in 2008 and did you let it lapse? Most of the issues in the applications involve those documents that were turned in after 2008. The applicants affected were never issued a license (i.e., failed the exam on first attempt) and some were not even allowed to sit for the NCLEX-RN when they applied for the first time. Some were endorsement applicants from other states but never got a license in California to begin with. You should try to reinstate your license and see what the board does, what have you got to lose?

[fjellgren]

Thanks for the reply. I have already inquired the CA BRN regarding my specific situation. I let it lapse this year and didn't even bother reading the whole renewal notice. I mean I got a renewal notice but with this whole scenario who knows if I really am was still qualified to renew?

Still awaiting word from the board.