moonmelody

Thank you. That's a very generous window if that's the case!

To add: I've tried to contact the CABON multiple times to ask them about this and have gotten no response.

Hi there. I've made a few posts before about my journey back to California. I'm originally from LA but have been in London for 10 years and did my nursing degree here. I know all about the insanity that is the CABON for foreign trained RNs. They're a tough nut to crack. Anyway, I've got my application all set and ready to go with my transcripts and breakdown of credits. I know I'll need to take extra credits in psych, pediatrics, and maternity, and I've found a few schools who are able to take me on for that. My question is: What is the time frame for getting those extra credits done? From the time the CABON issues my deficiency letter, how long do I have to start those extra credits? I ask because I'm pregnant now and will be going on maternity leave soon, so I want to time my application to the CABON in a good way. For example, if I were to apply now and the CABON said I have 6 months to get accepted to one of the California schools for those extra credits, it might be too much for me in terms of when I'll be recovered enough from the pregnancy to do clinicals.

College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita does it!

Hi, all. I thought I'd give a quick update. YES, I'm still hacking away at this. My only remaining hurdle is getting my uni to complete the Breaking of Credits required by the CABON. They don't want to do it.

Hi there! I'm just waiting for the letter telling me which credits I need to make up. I've gotten in touch with a couple of CA accredited nursing schools who are able to offer courses targeted at foreign trained RNs who need to make up discrepancies. Thanks for asking. I will keep everyone posted.

Hey, all. Allow me to apologise in advance for the negativity. I'm having a tough time at the moment and need to vent. So I'm a new RN who graduated 8 months ago. I was born and raised in the States but have been living in the UK for years and did my degree here. I've been working in major trauma and really, really am loving it for the most part. However, the realities of being a nurse here are starting to eat away at me. Firstly, the nurse to patient ratio is brutal. Unless you work in an ICU or HDU, you can expect to have 6 to 10 patients per shift. The trauma unit I work on has 28 beds, and on a day when we are fully staffed we have 4 RNs and 3 healthcare assistants (HCAs, quite like CNAs but they don't need any prior training and have a fairly narrow scope of practice). Secondly, we are required to do rotating shifts. During each 4 week rota we have 14 12.5 hour shifts, so that works out to 2 4 shift weeks and 2 3 shift weeks, and have to do an equal amount of nights and days. But they are split up and different every rota, and we often come off a night shift and then have to come in the next morning for a day shift. Thirdly, the pay is impossible to survive on, especially if you have a family. New grad RNs like me make [COLOR=#252525]£10 an hour, we don't get paid overtime, and after taxes it's just so deflating. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#252525]I knew it was going to be hard, and in this country you definitely don't go into the career for the money. The high patient load and feeble pay are just part and parcel of having a socialised health care system. And don't get me wrong, the NHS can be a godsend in many ways. No one ever has to fear going into debt because they get cancer or need any other lifesaving intervention. But I feel like nurses are overworked and underpaid to the extreme. I'm afraid of burning out. I am afraid of losing my love of nursing. But mostly I fear that maybe I'm just a big whiny baby and perhaps am not cut out for being a nurse here. Most of my colleagues seem to cope just fine. Perhaps they're better at hiding their stress. I don't know.[/COLOR]

Thank you! That's heartening. Did you have paeds and maternity during your studies, though? In the UK we specialise right away, so my degree is just in adult nursing. I did participate in maternity care and some paediatrics during a few clinical placements, but none of them were specifically geared toward those areas.

Hi, all. :) I've made a couple of posts in the past regarding my desire to return home to the US. I'm a California native but have been living in the UK for years and did my nursing degree here. Currently I'm working on an acute surgery and trauma unit, and loving it. Still, I'd like to go back to the States at some point in the next few years. I'm fully aware of how tough a nut California is to crack in terms of concurrency, so I accept that I might not ever be able to live and work in back in my SoCal hometown. I do plan on applying to the CA BON and making an attempt at getting on a waiting list somewhere to make up the credits I will need, but I'm also looking at other states that would suit me - namely Washington and Colorado. I've had a peek at Washington's requirements for foreign trained RNs. Their guidance seems to offer a bit of wiggle room in terms of transcript interpretation, but I get the sense that they're not much more accepting than California. I've not yet taken a look at the requirements for Colorado, but I also haven't heard of any foreign RNs struggling to get their ATT there. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge related to these two states? I have a social security number and English is my first language, as I'm American, so there's no immigration obstacle for me. But if anyone can offer me any advice/information about Colorado or Washington, I'd be very grateful.

Yes indeed. I'm going to get all of my paperwork in and see how it goes. I'm more than happy to pay an arm and a leg for the deficiency work because a) due to family matters I really need to come home, and b) it's an investment. The quality of life for RNs in the UK so so poor right now. Burnout rates are through the roof due to the insane nurse-to-patient ratio and nurses are barely scraping by on the pitiful salary.

The infamous concurrency issue. Fortunately there seem to be a good little handful of schools that are willing to help foreign trained RNs make up the deficiency.

Do you know of any other impending changes to California's requirements?

Hi, all. Some months ago I posted about my desire to return to my native California after being in the UK for years and having completed my nursing degree here. We all know that trials and tribulations that come with attempting to gain licensure in California as a foreign-trained RN: concurrency, visa acquisition, social security number, finding an accredited school to make up units, etc. Fortunately immigration and the social security number aren't issues for me because I'm an American citizen. I've just got all of my paperwork submitted to have my university in London send the CA BON my transcripts and the breakdown of credits, in addition to my application to the CA BON to take the NCLEX. In full expectation to receive the dreaded deficiency letter from the CA BON, I've started the process of hunting around California for nursing schools that might be willing to accommodate me as a guest student. Pierce College and College of the Canyons both definitely run programs for foreign RNs with deficiencies, but the state of their waiting lists changes. California Baptist University told me that they are attempting to put together a program for foreign RNs, so they are compiling a list of people who are interested. I hope this information is helpful to others in my situation. I'll definitely keep you all updated as and when I hear from the other schools that I have contacted.

Tell me about it! From what I have heard, the measures were put in place as a reaction to some Filipino nurses applying for licensure in California with fraudulent documents. So now all foreign trained nurses are required to undertake California-based nursing education as a safety measure and as a way to ensure some type of conformity. Personally, I don't really mind the idea. A bit of schooling will prepare me for what American nursing is like. The extra paperwork, money, and bureaucracy is a right pain in the bum, but it will work out.

Did you come to the States before or after 2010? That year seems to have been the turning point for the CA BRN's educational requirements.