Unable to endorse my license

[Mommynursegrace]

Hi all,

I am a nurse (LVN) in California for almost 10 years and now I am unable to endorse my license over here in Washington state and probably most of the states since I have not finished any nursing program,well I actually almost did but due to difficult pregnancy I stopped right before graduating. So I took the NCLEX challenged the boards passed and worked for 10 years. Now I am over here in Washington state and the BON over here denied my endorsement and told me to retake the entire year of LPN and get my diploma:( so I was so shocked and devastated!!!! Does anybody know of any loopholes of how I am going to be able to get this California license endorsed without having to do nursing school all over again? Anyone knows anything about endorsing license at Oregon?Do you need to finish school and get a diploma for your LPN? HELP???!!!!!

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

I took the LPN boards and passed while I was on school for an RN. I then passed the RN. I am in NY.

I never worked as an LPN and didn't keep the license up once I passed my RN. I'm in NY. Was that legit? And how is it different than what OP did?

This is allowed in Florida too, but from my understanding the student has to be pretty far along in the program (so far along that I was training a new LPN who had to request time off during the first month of employment because she was scheduled to take her RN boards-this was about 2 years ago). As far as I know, there isn't any issues with transferring to another state, but then again, there's transcripts with specific courses completed and passed.

As for the OP, most schools will not accept credits/hours from another school as transfer credit for their own nursing program. I have only heard of one program, and it was for RN students who wished to finish at a different school. The catch was that they were new and lacked accredidation so good luck getting a job with some companies and if you want to advance to a BSN you would likely have to start all over or pay through the nose for a private college. Most likely moving will require going back to school. I would seriously consider going back for an RN though, as jobs for LPNs seem to be less and less. It's not a whole lot more time but to go back for the LPN and then decide to go on for the RN later will only knock off about a semester (nursing fundamentals).

[BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN]

Apples and oranges. YOU graduated from your LPN program, OP did not. Your advice of "depends on the state" is moot because OP has already used her only loophole in that CA allowed her to sit for the NCLEX without having completed nursing school. No other state will allow that and she will need to actually graduate to work in another state.

I am originally from Washington and I have filed for reciprocity of my license in Maine and Oregon. It took a little paperwork, and about $150-200 and I had my Maine license in 2 weeks. Oregon was a whole other story...it took paperwork, having my nursing school transcripts sent to the OR BON, proving I have worked something like 900 hours in the last 5 years, fingerprints, background check and finally about 45 days later i finally received my OR license. So it really depends on the state, because in Maine they didn't need any of that, of course I had to give my WA license number but really besides money not much else. Good luck to you.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

I suggest searching for an online program that get you what you need- there appears to be online everything nursing these days and some don't even require you to physically go to campus.

Not for LPN. There are exactly zero legitimate online only entry to practice nursing programs. While theory classes may be online, there are still in person lab and clinical requirements.

[katfish67lpn]

I understand her situation. I just was surprised by how different the process for filing for reciprocity of a license is in different states. Thank you though for the clarification.