Virginia has mini compromised

FocusRN · Jul 2, 2009

And the tide is turning..... More to come, I'm sure.

honeyblpn · Jul 3, 2009

I am soo happy about this! I feel like dancing! lol I live in Pa, but i am thinking of moving to dc/norther va. after i finish EC! Now my plans seem so more realistic!!!!

Now we have to work on Maryland BON!!!!

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jul 3, 2009

Now we have to work on Maryland BON!!!!

I was checking the site yesterday to determine if SB 205 had passed, which would allow EC grads to endorse in ... I couldn't tell if it had been approved or not. It looked like it had, but I'm not sure.

honeyblpn · Jul 3, 2009

Thats great news Lunah! What site did u check? The EC site or the MD bon of site? I always have a hard time trying to figure out the wording of the retrictions of a particular state board.

ltsgnn · Jul 4, 2009

SB 205 was thrown out by the Maryland Legislature because the Maryland Board of Nursing and other RN's and organizations supposedly had proof that lack of clinical hours in nursing programs such as Excelsior's is dangerous to patients and made lack of clinical hours a patient safetly issue. The legislature got intimidated and throw the bill out before it even made it to the floor. I have written and spoken to the woman who deals with education on the Maryland Board of Nursing and in my opinion she is ignorant and would not listen to my point of view on the program. I think the Maryland Board of nursing is full of it. How can you prove that Excelsior nurses are not as safe as traditionally school nurses? If the there is proof I would like to see it. Any nurses in Maryland who graduated from Excelsior should come together like the nurses in Texas and contact the Governor of Maryland and plead there case. I work at a Millitary hospital and there are many nurses here who went through Excelsior and they are some of the best nurses I know with impeacable clinical skill. If clinical skill are in question I would put Excelsior graduates up against traditional graduates (not that I'm nocking traditional graduates just making a point) to see the scores. Excelsior's clinical portion of the program is very rigid and if you don't know what your doing they will not pass you. That is part of reason why there is waiting period, (besides volume of students) excelsior wants you to be prepare. I am a future Excelsior graduate and I live in VA. I'm working on my prereq's and will start nursing exams in August. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I was going to get my license in DC since I work at a federal facility but I am elated that VA is has compromised with Excelsior because it's a wonderful program. I did not have time to sit in a class room. Thank You for letting me vent. ;)God Bless

ltsgnn · Jul 4, 2009

a constituent member association of the american nurses association, representing maryland’s professional nurses since 1904.

mna protects patient safety by blocking sb 205

the maryland nurses association (mna)

demonstrated the power of nurses in annapolis

this session. when the department of health and

mental hygiene (dhmh) introduced senate bill

205–state board of nursing–licensing–licensure by

endorsement–provisional practice permits, mna

polled its members and sprang into action. mna’s grass

roots pressure and intense lobbying efforts eventually

forced the department of health and mental hygiene to

withdraw the bill, allowing them to avoid the bill being

killed.

sb 205 drew strong opposition because it raised

serious patient safety issues. the bill’s authors stated

that it was an attempt to alleviate the nursing shortage

by reducing “barriers” to licensure. however as soon as

the bill was introduced, nurses across maryland began

to question its long-term implications for patient safety.

mna partnered with other nursing organizations,

including the black nurses association of baltimore and

the maryland association of nursing students (mans),

to oppose the bill.

the controversy over the bill centered on the creation

of two new pathways to licensure by endorsement.

through licensure by endorsement, a nursing board

licenses a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse

who has a license from another state or country and has

passed an acceptable licensure exam. while licensure by

endorsement is already a common practice in maryland

and other states, sb 205 created two new pathways for

licensure for individuals without complete educations.

mna’s membership strongly felt that this lack of education would put patients at risk.

with the first new pathway,

the maryland board of nursing

would have been able to license

an endorsement candidate who

lacked clinical training. nurses

who met certain conditions

could substitute work experience

for clinical training. mna’s

membership strongly felt that

nurses need structured clinical

training in order to learn how

to practice safely. the nurses

eligible for licensure through

this pathway would have

graduated from an accredited school that only offered a

final assessment of clinical skills without the preparatory

clinical training. these nurses would only have been

required to have 44 days of clinical practice experience

in the past year or 125 days in the past 5 years.

under the second new pathway, the maryland

board of nursing would have been allowed to issue a

provisional permit to an endorsement candidate who

was missing clinical or didactic training. while the

provisional permit holder would have only been allowed

to practice within a limited scope, mna’s membership

felt that the provisional permit holder would put patients

at risk for two reasons: 1) a nurse needs complete clinical

and didactic training in order to deliver safe care. no

one has considered licensing other health professionals,

including physicians, without a complete education; and

2) given the realities of the work place, it would be nearly

impossible for a nurse to stay within a limited scope of

practice. in most health care facilities, nurses get moved

from unit to unit and from shift to shift. there is no way

to guarantee that the provisional permit holder would not

be asked to practice outside the scope of the permit.

in response to such deep concerns about patient safety,

dhmh asked the senate to amend the provisional permit

provision. the amendment renamed the provisional

permit to a temporary limited license. under the new

name, an endorsement candidate could be missing one

didactic component. however, mna’s concerns about

the bill still remained. the amended pathway for a

temporary limited license still allowed a nurse to practice

without a complete education. the pathway to allow

clinical experience to substitute for clinical training still remained intact.

[color=white]iafter the senate passed the amended bill, mna

continue to oppose the bill in the house. a good hearing

in front of the house health and government operations

committee revealed the bill’s problems to the legislators.

shortly after the hearing, dhmh withdrew the bill.

mna has agreed to continue discussions about

reducing barriers to licensure for qualified applicants, as

long as practicing nurses and educators are at the table.

as the legislative process revealed, workforce shortage

proposals need to be thoroughly vetted before being

implemented. patient safety is too important to risk.

mna would like to thank all of its members who contacted

their legislators about the bill and our partner nursing

organizations for their work. we also would like to extend a

special thank you to robyn elliott, mna’s lobbyist, for her

efforts on this bill. we have demonstrated that nurses working

together can have a significant impact on the legislative [color=white] process.[color=white]ue

ltsgnn · Jul 12, 2009

Hello, I don't see anything on the Virginia Board of Nursing's web site about endorsement of a nursing graduate with 960 hours. Where did you get your information from. Thank You

RNandRRT · Jul 13, 2009

It's in it's public hearing phase until the first week of August. The information I received was from Excelsior College so that we (Virginians) may send our comments during this phase to help it pass. Excelsior has stated that they are in favor of this agreement.

RNandRRT · Jul 13, 2009

I also don't know how good the Virginia website is, cause they were hacked a few months ago, and a lot of people's pharmacy information with SS#'s and so forth was stolen off it. They then closed down the site for a few weeks and just recently re-opened it. So I would call them with any questions you may have.

RNandRRT · Jul 13, 2009

And Lunah was kind enough to post the actual letter from Excelsior in the second post of this thread. page 1.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Jul 14, 2009

Yeah, I got a letter from the Dept. of Health Professions about the site being hacked ... glad I registered for NCLEX with my drivers license number, not my SSN!

NurseCubanitaRN2b, BSN, RN · Jul 14, 2009

What's funny is that the state boards will allow foreign trained grads sit for NCLEX and allow them to practice nursing. But yet a school that's here in the US they will ban. It's a crock if you ask me.