To be or Not to be .. a Nurse again?

[CrazygymNurse]

Hello to anyone is reading this ...

I really need some good advice. I am currently working as a massage therapist in Florida. I obtained my massage license originally from North Carolina in 2014. I moved to Florida, was granted a massage license in December 2015. When it came time to renew, The board of health in Florida denied my renewal because I was on the OIG exclusions list because I had lost my RN license back in 2013. Well, i got my name removed from that list because I had a valid license to practice massage in North Carolina. So I got my Florida massage licensed renewed and now I am working. Well I am at the point that I would really like to work in the medical field again, but i'm just not sure I want to do it as a RN. I know the money is good . blah blah blah, but sometimes money is not everything. The board is not easy to contact nor even respond in a timely manner. I was in the IPN but they told me that I had to have a active RN license in order to participate in the program. Well , now that i have my name off that OIG list, I want to apply to get my RN license reinstated, but there is a lot of red tape to go through because of my situation. I am sure I would have to go through the IPN program. I guess i just need advice on whether or not nursing is really something I want to go back in to. I have been out of it for 5 years now. Would i need to re take the boards? Since I can't seem to get any help from the board of nursing i was wondering if anyone else has been through something similar?

[YUKONrn]

Not worth it.

[SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN]

It depends. If I liked being a massage therapist & it kept a roof over my head I might just keep doing it. If you don't have a need or a burning desire to come back to nursing don't because I wouldn't wish this monitoring poop on anybody

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

For starters, yes the FBON is dang near impossible to get a hold of. If you actually get a live voice on the phone to ask your question to, you may get transferred to the voice mail of the ambassador to Antarctica just to get you off the phone. I've been given email addresses to people that don't exist as well as phone numbers for people that aren't even in the BON.

That being said, you said that you were in IPN at one time (I think that's how I read it) so yeah, your time would have been tolled. I would not be surprised if they expected you to start over. Depending on what got you here to begin with, they would also probably expect you to see their snake oil salesman/approved evaluator for a financial-oscopy so the fleecing of your bank account can begin with a bolus of money from you to whoever they give you minimal choice to write that check to.

AFTER all of that (including the likely unnecessary ‘treatment') you might get to join the ranks of contract restricted nurses and try to find a job.

If you Want to go back into nursing enough to go through all this trash, have at it. Otherwise, if it's just for the money, personally, I'd stick with massage therapy...sounds a lot less stressful.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

You don't retake boards but you'll need a refresher course since it's been 5 years according to Google plus whatever hoops the BON and IPN want you to do. Sometimes you have to do a year or more of drug testing before they'll even think about reinstating your license.