Petition the boards

Look on California's department of health website - I looked around a little bit and was unable to find anything specific - maybe you can have better luck. But their nurse aid contact phone # is (916) 327-2445 - with the way that website is organized it might be easier just to call.

Wow, you can get sit for your lpn nclex after only 3 months of clinical? I live in PA, and we are not able to do it at anytime - but that just seems like a really short amount of clinical time to become a nurse. Are you in an accelerated program?

Hi Akkrite909,

Your CNA/LVN goals are admirable and ambitious! However, I wholeheartedly recommend that you do all of your clinical hours before challengning the Boards!

I am a two year LVN, graduated from an excellerated 18 month program, and am now a Wellness Coordinator. I have worked extremely hard in the past two years and I can write to you with experience that there will be experiences that you need to draw upon from your advanced clinicals and hours on the floor. This is critical for the patient and yourself. Please do not get stuck unaware!!!

My advice to you is to do the program in its entirety and graduate as a confident, competent nurse and you will have a successful and rewarding career. Also, which facility is going to hire you with only three months of clinicals? Most employment postings read "Must have graduated from an accredited LVN program". This is with good reason! Please rethink your choices.

Best of Luck,

Nurse Smiley :loveya:

At the hospital where I've been doing agency, they are even training a nurse tech II to pass meds and give pt care on a busy telemetry advanced care unit. She has been doing this during the summer, when I presume she is off of school.

Hospitals are being forced to be innovative to help meet critical staffing needs. I wouldn't rule out your plan. I think the real work experience would be invaluable and add to what you are learning in school.

Hospitals are being forced to be innovative to help meet critical staffing needs.

Sorry but I don't agree with this. Hospitals are not "forced" to do anything like this. The HOSPITALS are responsible for causing unsafe and miserable working conditions and drive licensed nurses away. Their greed over all these years is the cause and now they are paying the price and trying to circumvent every safety precaution to save a buck.

It is completely inappropriate to be training a student nurse to pass meds when they are working as a glorified CNA and not under the immediate supervision of their instructor. I don't know how they think that they are going to get away with this with.

Does no one else see that nursing is being eroded into a pathetic job that takes no training and can be done by any Tom, Dick, and Harry off the street who is given a name tag? I pray me and my family are able to care for each other at home and never enter a healthcare facility.

This is a dangerous situation. I would be looking up the specific regs and reporting that facility. A little media attention wouldn't hurt either.

At the hospital where I've been doing agency, they are even training a nurse tech II to pass meds and give pt care on a busy telemetry advanced care unit. She has been doing this during the summer, when I presume she is off of school.

Hospitals are being forced to be innovative to help meet critical staffing needs. I wouldn't rule out your plan. I think the real work experience would be invaluable and add to what you are learning in school.

Would you be willing to post the state in which you work?

This sounds more than suspect to me. I live in a state which allows certified med aides in LTC, (which I disagree with) schools and group-home settings, but I have never heard of this being allowed in acute care hospitals.

I assume this person you speak of is a nursing student. How in the world can the facility justify allowing her to perform functions independently during the summer that require an instructor's or staff nurse's supervision the other 9 months of the year? This is nuts!

I agree with a previous poster that hospitals and other healthcare facilities have created environments that drive out qualified, professional nurses, myself included. I am unwilling to work in the in-patient setting given the lack of adequate staffing, professionalism and flexibility in scheduling that runs rampant.

In NY you can't sit for CNA or LPN based on clinicals from an RN program. The logic is that each category has specific knowledge base and skills requirment, and they are not interchangeable. You are learning to be an RN, your skill set includes an emphasis on patient assessment, teaching etc while we should all learn the basics, bed baths, moving and transferring, etc. you should priortize learning and understanding the nursing process Assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation, evaluation. I

I know my first year of school I really wanted to work in a clinical setting, but I was waitressing to support myself. Then I got a wonderful opportunity as a Student Nurse Tech in the local VA hospital. I do basic patient care but I also get to change dressings, insert foleys, and observe RN's doing different procedures, it is great experience and I am definetely a visual learner, I can do IM and subcut inj with my eyes closed now. See if there is some type of program at your local hospital and concentrate on your studies.