Foreign RN from Philippines with MI license Endorse to California BON-approved!
I'm an RN in MI who applied for an Endorsement of RN license to Callifornia. After months of waiting, I was finally approved. I had been an allnurses forum reader looking to find any interesting topics with regards to personal experiences of obtaining RN from Philippines to California; what's their take on any situations they are into in the Nursing world. I decided to write an article to share what I experienced so that it might help out colleagues like me who are looking for answers on how to do certain things as they go through their nursing path.
Hi colleagues! Let me just share my personal experience on endorsement process of my MI RN license here on California.
I've been reading a lot from this forum about stories from foreign nurses like me to having denials on their applications just to have seats for NCLEX CA or even on their endorsements. I thought at first i would have the same fate.
My nursing journey started when I graduated year 2005 then took the local PRC exam on the same year and passed it. During those times, it was a boom for foreign nurses to had the opportunities to work in the land of milk and honey ( USA) due to nursing shortage so I took a chance then I was hired from one of the hospitals in south central US...then at the year 2008 i passed NCLEX MICHIGAN. Since then I clung to the hope that one day I would be relocating in US and work as a RN. I patiently waited for 4 years only to found out that before my US visa screen for my EB3 lapsed (2012), my US hospital employer dropped us without giving us notice.
At first i really felt sorry for myself to relying on that kind of hope that i was expecting, but then again, God had better plans for me.
Then, fast forward to year 2015, my husband's petition for me was finally approved and now i am currently residing here in California.
Since I had the Michigan RN license, I decided to have it endorsed to California. I talked to some people who have certain knowledge on how it is being done, but mostly told me that California is the strictest; that I would be probably be advised by the international analysts to take MS/OB units due to nursing education deficiencies from my homeland which some people I know are doing it right now; another thing, concurrency issues that have been the biggest factor why most foreign RN nurses got rejected....with that, the only easiest solution for me to be able to penetrate to the health care sector was to take the NCLEX-LPN. But still I pursued what is to be done.
In early January, this year I started my endorsement application. My mom was the one who coordinated with my nursing school to submit my school requirements such as request of transcript with certified copy of my OTR, breakdown of educational program and summary of clinical practice. Then by February, I submitted the endorsement fee along with completed endorsement application form, livescan copy, 2x2 passport size picture, and did the Nursys verification of my MI License.
I just did what the CBRN implied on their website. Honestly, at first I doubted myself if I could get through on this while working on my endorsement application since all the negativities had been there back and forth. But still I followed my own intuitions and lifted it up everything to God.
I waited and by May, I got a mail from a licensing officer and said to me I needed to provide a clear copy of my SSN, copies of nursing diploma as well as my foreign nurse license ( PRC) with English translations and that my application was on the final stage of evaluation and had yet to wait again for 4 weeks then I would know if I get approved or not.
I kept on calling the CBRN for like 12 times just to ask my status but i couldn't get hold on any calls since most of the time CBRN had very high volumes of calls. Then, at this very week of June I checked on breeze and saw my name with the REGISTERED NURSE ID number on it. Also i received from the mail my California RN license as well as my certificate that i satisfactorily complied the requirements.
I am beyond happy that finally everything has fallen into the right place.
What I have learned from all that I have gone through is never give up. If you want to reach your dreams, follow your instincts. You wouldn't know the outcome not unless you have tried it. There maybe uncertainties, negativities as well as hurdles along your nursing path but with such determination and motivation, in the end you could get through it and most importantly, anything is possible through God.
