michelle8888

Hello, I'm an RN stuck in Texas trying to get to California to be with my husband. I had no idea the process would be so difficult or I would have thought twice before agreeing that my husband accept the California job. We have a one year old baby so it's a real struggle for us all to be apart. I'm hoping someone can help me navigate the California BON 'educational breakdown form' required for internationally educated nurses. I'm a graduate of a top Canadian nursing school and currently hold Canadian nursing license and a multistate compact license in the USA/Texas. I recently applied for a California nursing license and received a letter requesting an 'educational breakdown form' to be submitted by my nursing school. My nursing school informs me they will provide what they refer to as an 'education verification package' to Cali BON which is essentially the same thing except that my nursing school will only include NURS courses from my transcripts. This will satisfy most of the required 'educational breakdown form' however some of the items on the form including various sociology courses, psychology, anatomy/physiology and microbiology which are not courses that I took to acquire my BSN but rather had from my other Bachelor of Arts degree. And some from courses I took at three different colleges 15 years prior to ever attending to nursing school. I've attended 5 colleges/universities in total. So if my nursing school will only submit information on courses taken with them even though my acceptance to the nursing school was based on the pre-requisites from several other schools, how do I get the additional course information requested on the 'educational breakdown form' to the California BON? Or will they be satisfied with transcripts alone? The transcripts themselves don't go into the same level of detail as the form they require. And how do I know if the colleges I attended 20 years ago for those non-nursing science courses are considered acceptable to California BON? I've been researching this issue extensively and of course attempted many times to contact Cali BON but that has proven futile. My research seems to indicate California can be very stringent with their requirements and very difficult to contact directly for additional information. Would they expect me to retake psychology, anatomy/phys and microbiology again with an approved nursing school? My nursing school charges 500.00 for the educational verification package so I dont want to spend that money if it's not what I need. Plus I want to know exactly what I'll be getting myself into by continued efforts to work in California. Any insight/information anyone has would be greatly appreciated!

Hello, I'm an RN stuck in Texas trying to get to California to be with my husband. I had no idea the process would be so difficult or I would have thought twice before agreeing that my husband accept the California job. We have a one year old baby so it's a real struggle for us all to be apart. I'm hoping someone can help me navigate the California BON 'educational breakdown form' required for internationally educated nurses. I'm a graduate of a top Canadian nursing school and currently hold Canadian nursing license and a multistate compact license in the USA/Texas. I recently applied for a California nursing license and received a letter requesting an 'educational breakdown form' to be submitted by my nursing school. My nursing school informs me they will provide what they refer to as an 'education verification package' to Cali BON which is essentially the same thing except that my nursing school will only include NURS courses from my transcripts. This will satisfy most of the required 'educational breakdown form' however some of the items on the form including various sociology courses, psychology, anatomy/physiology and microbiology which are not courses that I took to acquire my BSN but rather had from my other Bachelor of Arts degree. And some from courses I took at three different colleges 15 years prior to ever attending to nursing school. I've attended 5 colleges/universities in total. So if my nursing school will only submit information on courses taken with them even though my acceptance to the nursing school was based on the pre-requisites from several other schools, how do I get the additional course information requested on the 'educational breakdown form' to the California BON? Or will they be satisfied with transcripts alone? The transcripts themselves don't go into the same level of detail as the form they require. And how do I know if the colleges I attended 20 years ago for those non-nursing science courses are considered acceptable to California BON? I've been researching this issue extensively and of course attempted many times to contact Cali BON but that has proven futile. My research seems to indicate California can be very stringent with their requirements and very difficult to contact directly for additional information. Would they expect me to retake psychology, anatomy/phys and microbiology again with an approved nursing school? My nursing school charges 500.00 for the educational verification package so I dont want to spend that money if it's not what I need. Plus I want to know exactly what I'll be getting myself into by continued efforts to work in California. Any insight/information anyone has would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Sarah, yes the workload is intense. Plan to have absolutely no social life for 18 months. Sorry to sound like a downer but it is really tough and everyone complains. Apparently though, the program for the Sep 2009 intake has changed due to many students not being able to cope with the existing program and demanding schedule. I hope for all your sakes that it lightens up a bit. There is currently 50% theory and 50 % practical. Clinicals for my intake were two days per week 8 hours per day for the first term plus all the course work. The Second term is 1-12 hour shift per week for 6 weeks and 2-10 hour shifts for the 2nd 6 weeks in one term. Some instructors are great, some not so much. If you want more of the scoop email me direct.

I'm in for January as well. I will have a car. Perhaps we could car pull or since you won't have a car, just share the gas costs.

My understanding is that the program is technically only 18 months and since there is no school in August we would be finished with the program in July 2010 but we don't graduate until November 2010 which is where the 2 years comes in. It is 5 terms. We go Jan '09, Then summer '09, then Sep '09, then Jan '10, then summer '10 and we are done.

I got accepted for January!! Very excited. I was notified last week. Kendall, were you able to change to September? Any news on Codeblue?

Thanks Kendall, For switching, keep in mind you do have to come up with a really good reason why September is better for you. I personally prefer January so I'm sure a lot of people will try to switch. On your interview did you talk a lot during the 8 minutes or just stop talking once you answered the questions? Did you get a feel at all from the interviewers on anything? Sounds like if I don't hear back today then I won't be in the first choice batch. The chance of acceptance after July 4th will probably be very slim. Any idea what percentage of applicants will decline their offers?

Thanks Kendall16, as for your question, I asked the same thing about switching on my interview and they said if you give them a solid reason they would consider it. So there is some flexibility. In your acceptance email did they give you a certain amount of time to accept the offer?

Hi everyone, a question for nursenumber1 and kendall16 and anyone else who has received an acceptance letter from UBC for the 2008/2009 terms...what days did you do your interviews? I am very anxious waiting to hear whether I've been accepted. I had an interview on June 6th so I'm thinking that perhaps the people whose interviews were on the earlier dates were notified first? I hope this is the case. Good luck to everyone. Any further info or updates would be very much appreciated.