Is it legal to work as an aid while you are an RN

[Rn 1979]

Well here's my story. I passed my NCLEX RN yesterday and I'm officially RN now. During my school I worked as nursing assistant in the MICU and I got hired as an RN in the same unit before my graduation and my manger was waiting for me to take my board to officially start working as an RN. My manger in vacation right now and he wont come back till July 14th which is like 2 weeks from now and I wont be able to start as an RN till he come back to work. I'm still on the schedule for the next two weeks as a nursing assistant and I mostly work every day. Is it normal to stay in my job as an aid while waiting to my manger to come back? I have no problem to stay aid for couple of weeks but is it legal or it will cause me troubles?

[elkpark]

You're splitting hairs- find a state that allows RN's to practice with an "inactive" license & I'll bite.

I already stated that nurses with inactive licenses are not permitted to practice nursing while their licenses are inactive. I'm just attempting to qualify some inaccurate sweeping generalizations that are being made here about inactive license status. If you want to consider that "splitting hairs," go right ahead.

[rzyzzy]

I already stated that nurses with inactive licenses are not permitted to practice nursing while their licenses are inactive. I'm just attempting to qualify some inaccurate sweeping generalizations that are being made here about inactive license status. If you want to consider that "splitting hairs," go right ahead.

You're the one citing magic beans and inferring that an "inactive" license might get sanctioned for failure to act as a nurse.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

Where I work, once the RN license is active you can not work as an aide. Keeps the whole can you or can you not out of the equation.

Call your HR department first

thing this week and ask.

[NotAllWhoWandeRN, ASN, RN]

I already stated that nurses with inactive licenses are not permitted to practice nursing while their licenses are inactive. I'm just attempting to qualify some inaccurate sweeping generalizations that are being made here about inactive license status. If you want to consider that "splitting hairs," go right ahead.

Of course never-licensed, inactive, expired, and revoked are different things when it comes to licensure, but I disagree that it's a sweeping generalization to say that if you are not a licensed nurse, you are not a licensed nurse.

If you don't have an active license, you are not an RN or LPN. If you are not an RN or LPN, you have no legal scope of practice, and to behave as if you did would be practicing without a license. I'm sure employers would love it if they could hire former nurses at CNA pay for RN accountability (something about having cake and eating it, too), but everything I see on BON websites indicates that's not the case. In the specific context of whether you can be accountable to licensed standards or not, you're either actively licensed or you're not a nurse. Even if you retire in good standing, you're RN-retired, not an RN.