Leahchanel

I received my RN license in September of 2014. I was under the impression that my license would expire two years from the year I received it, on my birthday. I'm not sure how I missed the memo that the first renewal will fall on your first odd year birthday if you're born in an odd year, regardless of when you originally received it, but I did. I also did not receive any correspondent notification from the Board nor did my employer inform me. I know it's ultimately my responsibility & trust me I feel like a huge idiot, but notification for a first time renewal less than five months from the date I originally received it, would've been really great & helpful. So, long story short my license expired in February 2015 & I had no idea. I've been working as a full time nurse the whole time. My employer failed to catch it. I even transferred from one hospital location to another, within the same system, & both hospitals missed it. I am in the process of starting a new job where I landed a L&D Internship & they are the ones who discovered that my license was expired. As soon as I found out I let my current employer know. I was doing the right thing. Well even though they missed it too they fired me the very next day, today. They said it was an aggregious offense. I'm not eligible for my PTO, Cobra or rehire. They washed their hands of me. I know it's serious but I didn't work on a suspended license, I failed to realize I needed to send in a renewal fee. That's it. There were no stipulations on my license & it would've been renewed with no problem, I just didn't know it was expired. I don't remember ever hearing about this first time expiration rule & never received anything to remind me. I thought it was valid for two years. As soon as I found out I immediately mailed off my delinquent renewal fee and all the required paperwork as well as a letter explaining to the Board what had happened, the very same day, yesterday. They received it this morning. It can take up to ten business days to find out my fate on renewal but my boss said it can take a year to find out what stipulations will be placed on my license because, & I quote, "the Board is slow". I'm so heartbroken & in disbelief that this is happening. I worked so hard to get here & have offered the best patient care I could. I have no complaints against me & an outstanding record with my employer. Plus, I landed the L&D Internship, which is incredibly difficult to obtain and now I'm most likely going to lose that too. I just can't believe it. The HR lady said in her 38 years of working with nurses in the hospital she has never seen this happen before. And of course I can't help but think if my license does get suspended who is going to hire a nurse who got her license suspended within the first year of receiving it. I'm so terrified I will never be able to work as a nurse again and that's all I've ever wanted to do. I have found more fulfillment taking care of others as a nurse than I ever could've dreamed of and I just can't believe that it's been ripped away from me over something as simple as a renewal fee. Thank you for sticking with me through this long post. If anyone has any advice I would be beyond grateful for it as I am heartbroken & my soul is destroyed over this. It's just not right. Again I know it's my own fault but it really was just an idiotic oversight. I had absolutely no reason to not renew it I just simply didn't know.