Info on Encumbered License and Going to School

NurseJackie69 · Jan 7

This is to help nurses who already have an RN and they want to go for their BSN or they have a BSN and they want to go to Advanced Practice Nurse School (NP, Midwife, etc) while they are in a monitoring program which means their license is technically Encumbered. It absolutely IS possible to go. It is also very difficult to go due to lack of communication/knowledge by the school itself because the person answering your questions with your first communication with the school is not a nurse. It's usually a human resources person or a secretary. This post will offer some advice on how to pull it off.

1. Encumbered means TWO things. It means one thing to the BON. It means your license is on probation or you are simply in a monitoring program under consent order or you have restrictions on practice, etc. Any or all of the above means your license is Encumbered to the BON. I think we all understand this.

2. But.......for the college, Encumbered often (not always) is a "catch all word" that implies RESTRICTIONS to PRACTICE on your license. See the difference? When many colleges are writing on their websites, "Must have Unencumbered License," they are often ASSUMING that the nurse will have Restrictions on her license regarding practice (can't give narcotics, can't work at nursing homes, can't work after 4 pm, etc) and so they use a catch all phrase "Must have Unencumbered License," when they are often truly meaning......"must have no restrictions to practice."

3. Many schools Mean What They Say. They mean Unencumbered and don't care if your license doesn't have any restrictions. They have an absolute rule that you can't get in, but many schools Don't have the absolute Unencumbered License thing set in stone IF......IF you have no restrictions on your license to practice.

4. I think we all get it by now. Your license can be Encumbered, but you can be one or two years into your monitoring agreement/consent order and have no restrictions to practice on your license. Many nurses are in this situation. After a year or so into their agreements, they simply just have to maintain the 3 or 4 or 5 year monitoring agreement/drug testing with their monitoring program and they have no restrictions on their practice.

5. When you are contacting a school, it's important to GET PAST the admissions counselor, or secretary who answers the phone, or human resources person that is like a ROBOT and when you ask if you can go, they simply Read the guidelines printed in front of them and tell you No, and these people are NOT nurses. They have no clue of the difference in the words Encumbered and Restrictions to Practice, so they read the script and tell you "No", you can't apply. This is where most nurses stop and hang up the phone and don't pursue going on with their education.

6. You have to be creative. Get PAST the admissions person or the person that answers the phone when you call the 1-800 number from the school website. You want to reach a NURSE in the program that teaches there or the actual NURSE who is the admissions Nurse for that school's program within the department. You would be surprised at how quickly they understand the difference in Encumbered compared to Restrictions on Practice. How do you speak to a nurse on the admissions committee who teaches within the actual degree program? Ask the admissions person who answers the phone. Say, "I would really like to talk to a nurse or instructor in the program and I am not sure about applying, but would still love to actually speak to one person in the program or who is over the program and not simply someone from human resources or admissions, but an actual nurse." This is how you get in.

7. Now obviously, if you have Restrictions on your practice. Don't waste your time. You aren't getting in, period. But, if you have no Restrictions on your practice, and lets say, you are two years into a monitoring agreement/consent order, so technically your license is Encumbered, you absolutely DO have a shot, but you have to communicate and reach someone within the nursing degree program that is a nurse (not the young secretary or human resources person who answers the phone). See what I'm getting at?

8. I've known 4 nurses who got admitted while under consent order. All 4 had no restrictions on practice, but were under consent order and license was technically Encumbered (because they were under consent order).

9. Your best best is at private schools who want your money. State schools will be more selective when applying because state schools are generally cheaper, so they will have more applicants who are willing to pay compared to private schools which are generally (not always) more expensive. Two of the nurses I knew did the ADN to BSN program at Western Governor's.

10. Many of you ask on here, "which schools." It's actually not necessarily as much about "the schools" as it is The Person/The Nurse/The Professor who is a Nurse that teaches in the program that you speak to at the school. Most nurses who don't apply stop with pursuing it BEFORE they have ever actually spoke to a nursing instructor in that particular program. Their stopping point was a human resources/admissions person who isn't a nurse/or a secretary who simply read a script in front of them and told the nurse "No" without having any concept or clue of the difference in "Encumbered" versus "No Restrictions to Practice."

11. Consider Private, even religious schools when applying who will often (not always) be more receptive to nurses in recovery, but again, it's often more about who you talk to in that program than it is the school itself. You will find that many nursing instructors/Professors across the country have someone in their family or a friend who has been in, or is in recovery, and possibly even the instructor themselves, but you have to reach out to these people, get Past the "Road Block" of secretary's, human resource robots, and admissions people who are essentially human resources people and actually Speak to the Nurse who is the Director of Admission or the Nurse who is the Assistant Director of Admissions. Think about schools that are ultra liberal or ultra religious conservative. You will find both of these will have more Nursing Admissions Directors that are more receptive to nurses in recovery. Is this always the case? Of course not, but the chances are higher compared to your average run of the mil state school, but some state schools like Ohio University has admitted nurses with encumbered licenses.

12. Is it tough to get in? Yes. Will most of your answers after reaching someone actually who is a nurse in the academic department be the word "No." Sure, most of the time, you are going to be told No, but I promise you this, the word "Yes" is possible and has been done and it's just like getting your first job back when re-entering practice into nurse coming from recovery or getting into trouble, most jobs are going to tell you No, and you are constantly told "No".........until one day/one job tells you "YES." Same applies for going back to school.

Hope this helps