International nurse trying to get license in California

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I was born in California but left with my family when I was 9 years old and moved to Ireland. It was here that I completed my general nursing training in 2007 and since then I have worked as a nurse in Ireland and Australia. I recently moved back to California but unsurprisingly the California Board of Registered Nursing has found that I do not meet their minimum requirements in Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Psychiatric nursing. My problem now is that EVERY Board accredited school I have gotten in touch with has said that they are "impacted" and can be of no help to me. I have searched schools within a 80 mile radius (I live in Sonoma county) and have come up with nothing. The schools and the board have been less than helpful in directing me on where I should go from here. Does anybody have any information? Do you know of schools that are not "impacted"? I am looking for anything at this stage. Thank you in advance for your responses.

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Specializes in ICU, step down, dialysis.

Moved to Nurse Registration for best response.

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Specializes in OR-ICU.

You pretty much have the same problem as nurses from the Philippines have. Username Steppybay has a pretty good insight to this issue. Try searching her username and you will get a lot of threads pertaining to this matter.

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Hi,

I'm pretty much in the same situation..got my BSc (Nursing) in Ireland, moved here last year and yesterday finally got a response from the BRN telling me the same thing, they found that I do not meet their minimum requirements in Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Psychiatric nursing.

Have you gotten any further in your search for a school that will provide these courses?

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Hi! I had to set up a new account because I completely forgot all my details. So yes, I have gotten much further. But I think I was lucky. I don't know where you are living but I'm in Northern California. In October I had applied to about 20 schools in my area, and each one said that they had no idea when or if they would ever have space for me. Right before Christmas I received a message from Samuel Merritt University in Oakland saying that they had 4 spots in Maternity, starting January 4. They had previously told me that they had over 100 international nurses on their waiting list so I was lucky enough to call right away and I got accepted. I just finished the maternity and pediatric classes that the California Board asked me to do. There was another Irish girl in the class and she had been waiting 3 years so I really was lucky to only have to wait 3 months.

With regards to the psych requirement, the California Board sent me a letter just 3 weeks ago saying that they are going to waive that requirement. They didn't give any explanation and I'm not asking either :) I had been in touch with my college and An Bord Altranais and I was e-mailing my contact in California, so maybe that made a difference. Now I am just waiting to sit the NCLEX. What An Bord Altranais told me was that in Ireland we "completed an integrated programme where the curriculum was developmental in the range of competencies you achieved and in this respect you can use any of your placements in Care of the Older Person to cover mental health, e.g. dementia. You can also use Home Nursing/Community to cover maternity and paediatrics. Your work in the clinical skills lab in these areas, esp. paediatrics and the simulated learning needs also to be counted both clinically and theoretically as thee were in state of the art facilities. These were integral to the programme approved by the Board."

What I would recommend is going back to your college and asking them to amend the "Breakdown of Educational Program for International Nursing Programs" so that your Community Health and possibly I.D. could be included in Pediatrics and Elderly care, I.D. and whatever else you can find could be included in Psych.

I had also applied to Dominicans University in San Rafael and they recently got in touch to say that they had openings this summer for psych nursing. I no longer need it but it might be a good school to get in touch with if you are in the area.

Hope some of this helps! Good Luck to you!!

Hi,

I'm pretty much in the same situation..got my BSc (Nursing) in Ireland, moved here last year and yesterday finally got a response from the BRN telling me the same thing, they found that I do not meet their minimum requirements in Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Psychiatric nursing.

Have you gotten any further in your search for a school that will provide these courses?

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Thanks so much for the reply! I'm near Modesto so have been in contact with lots of colleges around here and the bay area. Samuel Merritt got back to me saying they are currently revising their "special status" student applications for students that only need to complete certain courses and that they'll contact me again at the end of the month.

Just concerned that because it's a private college it'll be really expensive..But if it's the only option I'll take it!

Yesterday I found out about an Extended Education on-line pilot course in California State University, Stanislaus. They've started this for internationally trained nurses but only in mental health nursing at the moment. I enrolled today as it starts today (crazy timing!) and I thought I'd better do it as they don't know if they'll be running the course again.

Now I'm thinking I may have just spent lots of money needlessly :(

It's so hard to actually talk to someone at the Board of Nursing here, any advice on getting in touch with an actual person? Don't really have much time as my payment's gonna be processed, stressed now!

How long are those obstetrics and pediatric classes at Samuel Merritt?

Thanks so much!

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