Is the California Board of Nursing Manipulating their Nursing Shortage?

In April 2013 my husband and I relocated to California. After several months of acquainting myself with a new environment, I began the process of applying for my California RN. I completed the application, submitted my fingerprints for the background checks, requested transcripts from nursing school, and submitted the necessary fees. Unfortunately, after scrutinizing the CA board's website, I discovered the lengthy court transcripts regarding my school, Excelsior.

Many of you may know already where this story is headed. However, the devil is in the details. My pre-RN background included six years as an LPN at a long term acute care facility where I typically cared for four to six ventilator dependent patients. In 2003, I began completing tests through Excelsior. Officially on 11/17/2006, I was awarded an ASN with a GPA of 3.47. And so I began my RN career working dayshift at Jewish Hospital/Louisville, KY, in their arduous ICU Towers. I as well worked in CVICU and trained in Open Heart Recovery. In 2009, after meeting AACN requirements, I achieved my CCRN. I have accumulated over six years of critical care experience, as well as being a physician extender for two Intensivists' Groups.

Sadly, because I didn't pay my enrollment fee ($725) way back in 2003, the CA board will not accept my RN. After shedding many tears and spending long hours speaking with advisors in State Boards both at Excelsior and the CA board, I will not be issued a CA license. Why didn't I pay the enrollment fee in 2003? A very sweet older woman, Rose, who has since retired, advised me to "save my money." She told me to wait until I had completed Nursing Concepts 3 before sending the enrollment fee. At that time, my hourly wage was $13.25, and I appreciated her advice. However, both Excelsior and the California Board have repeatedly advised me that IF ONLY I had "enrolled" (enrolled by definition meaning paid their fee) I would be "grandfathered in."

Wow. This in a state with a projected nursing shortage of 1.2 million by 2020, per the Federal Bureau of Health Professions. California as well leads the nation in hospital staff strikes, with two of the largest in the country. Some locations including Alta Bates and San Jose have had multiple strikes with protests as recent as February 13, 2014. They cite "staff shortages" as the basis for striking.

On December 2, 2013, WKBN in Los Angeles delivered a segment on the state wide nursing shortage. They determined that California nursing schools accept only 18% of their applicants. When questioned, those schools cite faculty shortages and clinical site shortages as their rationale.

With six years of ICU experience, a specialty certification, along with upwards of $50,000 spent on training this highly specialized RN role, it is a tragedy I cannot obtain licensure here. The CA board is quite specific about "concurrent clinical hours with theory." And to them I would suggest reading the US Secretary of Education's article on "competency education." To take it one step further, I would recommend that Excelsior implement a clinical regiment allowing the student to obtain independent, yet individually approved, instructors in the workforce. This is common practice for the PA and NP programs nationwide.

Finally, who benefits from this stance, and who suffers from it? Based on the California Nurse Association's own website, there are a myriad of current patient care issues stemming from "chronic short staffing", as well as poor nurse to patient ratios. We all share one common role and that is to be a patient advocate above all. Denying my licensure because I failed to pay $725 before the 12/31/2003 deadline defies logic. I will leave it to the readers to decide who could possibly benefit from this.