I aM floored. I just received notice from GA Board of Nursing that they denied the endorsement of my MN RN license because I did not meet clinical practice requirements . When I called the board, they transferred me to a their Legal Nurse Consultant who stated that effective July 1, 2008 GA would no longer endorse RN license from Excelsior College students with no previous RN experience. She suggested that I go to my licensed state and work for a while then try again, but she could not give me a time frame.
Has anyone else experienced this. I thought we should at least have gotten some sort of notice/warning before this type of rule be adopted by the board. I am going to file a motion for reconsideration using an Attorney. Before I entered Excelsiors program I called GA Board to verify acceptance. I had been accepted to a traditional LPN to RN bridge program; I could have been almost finished their too. I am so sad right now. I have been crying for two days. I think I will need to see my doctor for Zoloft.
I have been an LPN for over 13 years doing Med/Surg for at least 10. I work on a hospital unit right now. THIS IS SO UNFAIR!!!:banghead:
Hopefully they wouldn't change the rules again before I got to the preceptorship. Even if I complete everything I am still at the mercy of the boards whims on approval correct? So how does someone go about getting a preceptorship? I would hate to go through it all and then not be able to even get an "approved preceptorship".
Good question. It seems to me that if the state institutes this as a requirement, then they should be the ones to make sure it's available to you. I picture something like a preceptor program designed and approved by the University System of Georgia and offered through local schools and universities that already have a school of nursing. That way, the expert nursing resources and clinical agreements would already be in place.
Also, it's sort of a win-win for EC and Georgia government. It creates no further burden for EC, puts money back into the state's pockets (which was the reason for much of this mess anyway, right?) through your added cost of having to pay for the preceptorship which probably won't be cheap, and still allows you guys as EC grads to obtain licensure in GA.
But, I'm just speculating here about what could happen.
My position is this: We as EC supporters should support HB 475 with certain conditions, if they will revise it.
1.) No additional requirements for those who were enrolled and graduated from EC before July 1 2008, when all of this started.
2.) For those currently enrolled: no additional requirements if they graduate on or before the June 30, 2011 deadline that they have used.
3.) The preceptorship that will be required of LPNs (350 hrs) and Paramedics (700 hrs) should be shortened. I would think more like 150 hours for LPNs and 300 hours for Paramedics.
4.) Since the state will be requiring the preceptorship, they should make it available through schools of the University System of Georgia or Georgia Technical Colleges for those who need it. It should be flexible enough to accomodate varying work schedules, even those working a 24 hours on, 48 hours off type of schedule, and actually be designed to serve as a learning experience instead of some government-mandated waste of time and money.
5.) The tuition for this required preceptorship should also be covered by the Hope grant/scholarship and Georgia Service Cancellable loans for those who meet the residency and GPA requirements. For those not eligible for Hope, the preceptorship should be designed so that student loans may be utilized to cover the tuition costs.
A compromise with Sharon Cooper might mean that she could focus on other things. Anything less will probably mean more of this same legislative BS next session.
For those that are interested in current/potential changes at the BON please check out some of the new rules implemented. They read just as HB 475 currently reads. Things may not be all bad after all but let's keep our fingers and toes crossed.
Preceptorship-here in WA state we are required 200 hours. I have seen at least 4 people at work do it but we are a skilled nursing facility. An RN at your preceptor site has to fill out paperwork and sign you off like a check list when you work. The RN is your official preceptor and you have to name a specific one. Granted the four people had been working there for years so it wasn't like they came to the facility off the street and said I need a preceptorship. Now on the other hand I have heard some people here in the state having a problem because they work at a hospital and the hospital doesn't want to do it for insurance purposes because we aren't under the school's insurance like a traditional program. It really will come down to your employer and if they will allow it at the facility and if not you have to try elsewhere. Just from my experience and maybe others have some insight.
Has any one ever noticed that if you take all of the letters in the statement
"We are here to protect the consumer"
and add a few more letters and move those letters around, it spells out:
"The Georgia Board of Registered Nursing really sucks and each and every member should be ran out of town on a rail after a through tar and feathering"
Has any one ever noticed that if you take all of the letters in the statement
"We are here to protect the consumer"
and add a few more letters and move those letters around, it spells out:
"The Georgia Board of Registered Nursing really sucks and each and every member should be ran out of town on a rail after a through tar and feathering"
Preceptorship-here in WA state we are required 200 hours. I have seen at least 4 people at work do it but we are a skilled nursing facility. An RN at your preceptor site has to fill out paperwork and sign you off like a check list when you work. The RN is your official preceptor and you have to name a specific one. Granted the four people had been working there for years so it wasn't like they came to the facility off the street and said I need a preceptorship. Now on the other hand I have heard some people here in the state having a problem because they work at a hospital and the hospital doesn't want to do it for insurance purposes because we aren't under the school's insurance like a traditional program. It really will come down to your employer and if they will allow it at the facility and if not you have to try elsewhere. Just from my experience and maybe others have some insight.
I hope it doesn't come to that type of arrangement. A new grad shouldn't be having to call or run around the city looking for a preceptor when the state is the one who wants to change the system.
Kennesaw State University near Atlanta has an RN re-entry program designed for those nurses who have left and are now re-entering the profession. It is given in both classroom and online format, and involves 40 hours of theory and 160 hours of precepted clinicals. What's wrong with adapting that type of course to fulfill the new, potentially upcoming requirements for the non-traditional nursing graduate? I believe there are several other Georgia schools with similar programs. If EC routinely has 1,000 or more Georgia students at any given time, then this could generate some money for the schools that get this going. I think KSU charges from $1500 to 2,000 for this course, so that's potentially a lot of cash to be generated.
PMDC, your comments bring to mind the lovely state of Colorado. The CO BON made additional hours a requirement back in 2006 -- I believe it's 750 for non-LPNs, and 250 for LPNs. At last word, the CO BON said something like, "The CO BON is working to make these hours available to students." But they never have, as far as I know; the students themselves have to find the hours, and I gather it hasn't been easy.
Colorado is on our "short list" of states to which to move (my husband spent a decade in Colorado Springs after he quit his job of being a "gravity tester for the 82nd Airborne," ha ha), so I've checked out the requirements -- as an EC grad, I can endorse in with 2000 hours of RN experience -- a year, essentially. But I still believe no provisions have been made to make it easy for GNs to get the hours they need, same as in Washington State, as far as I know. And where THAT state is concerned, even with experience, because I was/am a medic and was not an LPN, they may deny my licensure -- it's a case-by-case basis. Hmmmph.
PMDC, your comments bring to mind the lovely state of Colorado. The CO BON made additional hours a requirement back in 2006 -- I believe it's 750 for non-LPNs, and 250 for LPNs. At last word, the CO BON said something like, "The CO BON is working to make these hours available to students." But they never have, as far as I know; the students themselves have to find the hours, and I gather it hasn't been easy.
Colorado is on our "short list" of states to which to move (my husband spent a decade in Colorado Springs after he quit his job of being a "gravity tester for the 82nd Airborne," ha ha), so I've checked out the requirements -- as an EC grad, I can endorse in with 2000 hours of RN experience -- a year, essentially. But I still believe no provisions have been made to make it easy for GNs to get the hours they need, same as in Washington State, as far as I know. And where THAT state is concerned, even with experience, because I was/am a medic and was not an LPN, they may deny my licensure -- it's a case-by-case basis. Hmmmph.
If you have a year or more experience in another state, then none of the other stuff should even matter. You should just be required to file your paperwork and endorse right in. This business of stating you have to complete an "approved" preceptorship and that each licensee will be handled on a "case by case" basis just gives the board the power to discriminate against anyone they choose. And we've all seen what happens when they are given more power and when things are left open to their interpretation.
I am also a paramedic, and would like to make sure other medics in Georgia are not left out if ever a sensible, fair solution is reached. To say that a medic needs a 700 hour preceptorship is insane. From what I've heard, that's more than Georgia schools of nursing paramedic to RN bridge programs require, and those students don't have the CPNE to conquer. I've precepted a lot of nursing students, and Sharon Cooper and the people at the BON are giving WAY TOO MUCH credit to Georgia's ASN programs. I'm not saying they're bad at all, but to say that they produce a graduate nurse that is somehow safer than an EC graduate goes against everything I've seen out there in the real world.
On a side note, I recently had a traditional student working her clinicals with me who was in her last semester. I asked he if she wanted to get some IV sticks during the shift. She said, "I don't know how; our professors said we would learn IVs from our employers after we graduate". I had a similar situation with a student from another tradtitional program when inserting a Foley cath. Now I'm fully aware that this is not the fault of the students in the traditional programs. I just will never admit that they are any safer or more competent than an EC grad. No matter what the uninformed public is told, it simply is not true.
HB 475 has now passed the Senate. I guess it is off to the Gov. to become law. It passed overwhelmingly. I guess this is the new reality. Now let's just see if we can get this whole preceptorship thing figured out.
I have a question. If you are an RN in another state and have practiced nursing for a year, do you still have too do the 350 hours of preceptorship? All this wording is confusing.
I have a question. If you are an RN in another state and have practiced nursing for a year, do you still have too do the 350 hours of preceptorship? All this wording is confusing.
For licensure by endorsement:
(B) If graduated from a nontraditional nursing education program, have practiced nursing as a registered professional nurse in a health care facility for at least one year in the three years preceding the date of the application and such practice is documented by the applicant and approved by the board;
It appears that you're good as long as you've worked a year or more in another state. If not, then it looks like there would be a 350 hour preceptorship in your future if you're an LPN and 700 hours if you're a paramedic or military corpsman. They did leave that part about it being "approved by the board" in there.
I just wonder how this preceptorship will work. I would prefer that it be sponsored by local colleges/universities/medical centers. That would make sure that it's consistent, and students hopefully wouldn't have to worry about it being accepted by the BON. Any opinions from you guys?
Anyone heard from Governor Perdue's office? With it passing the House and Senate by wide margins, why wouldn't he sign it? Anyway, I think Georgia and EC's students can both live with this either way.
. When I called the board, they transferred me to a their Legal Nurse Consultant who stated that effective July 1, 2008 GA would no longer endorse RN license from Excelsior College students with no previous RN experience. She suggested that I go to my licensed state and work for a while then try again, but she could not give me a time frame.
Pmdc
119 Posts
Good question. It seems to me that if the state institutes this as a requirement, then they should be the ones to make sure it's available to you. I picture something like a preceptor program designed and approved by the University System of Georgia and offered through local schools and universities that already have a school of nursing. That way, the expert nursing resources and clinical agreements would already be in place.
Also, it's sort of a win-win for EC and Georgia government. It creates no further burden for EC, puts money back into the state's pockets (which was the reason for much of this mess anyway, right?) through your added cost of having to pay for the preceptorship which probably won't be cheap, and still allows you guys as EC grads to obtain licensure in GA.
But, I'm just speculating here about what could happen.
My position is this: We as EC supporters should support HB 475 with certain conditions, if they will revise it.
1.) No additional requirements for those who were enrolled and graduated from EC before July 1 2008, when all of this started.
2.) For those currently enrolled: no additional requirements if they graduate on or before the June 30, 2011 deadline that they have used.
3.) The preceptorship that will be required of LPNs (350 hrs) and Paramedics (700 hrs) should be shortened. I would think more like 150 hours for LPNs and 300 hours for Paramedics.
4.) Since the state will be requiring the preceptorship, they should make it available through schools of the University System of Georgia or Georgia Technical Colleges for those who need it. It should be flexible enough to accomodate varying work schedules, even those working a 24 hours on, 48 hours off type of schedule, and actually be designed to serve as a learning experience instead of some government-mandated waste of time and money.
5.) The tuition for this required preceptorship should also be covered by the Hope grant/scholarship and Georgia Service Cancellable loans for those who meet the residency and GPA requirements. For those not eligible for Hope, the preceptorship should be designed so that student loans may be utilized to cover the tuition costs.
A compromise with Sharon Cooper might mean that she could focus on other things. Anything less will probably mean more of this same legislative BS next session.
Anyone agree? Disagree?