Voluntarily Surrendering My License

[Lorie Brown RN, MN, JD]

Hi Lorie

Can I voluntarily surrender my California Nursing RN license - will that affect my other licenses with other states,? like Florida (where I currently practice), and the Compact - I am being audited and I realize that I do not have the 30 full credits for the Calif Nursing license requirement - I only have 29.8 - am short by 0.8 credits.

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Dear Voluntarily Surrendering

Voluntarily surrendering a nursing license can cause problems in any other state in which you have or had a license. You may choose not to renew your license but, by voluntarily surrendering your license, it can have what I call a "domino effect." Any other state can act against your license. It may seem like the easy way out at the time but it really isn't.

Good luck

Lorie

[twinsmom788]

Oh My Goodness- I would not surrender my license for that tiny bit of of missing CEUs. Just take another quick course and submit it and say sorry...I used to audit nurses in my state and send out letters. Unless CA has a huge fine or penalty for this, I would just carry on.

[delawaremalenurse]

Why would you surrender your license? Tell them you miscounted the number of CEU's and take a quick 1 or 2 credit free course online. They shouldn't have any problem with it...maybe a small monetary penalty or something.

DEFINITELY NOT worth surrendering your license for something this trivial.

[LikeTheDeadSea, MSN, RN]

I missed CEUs by something small last year in a different state - got a notification to submit a quick paragraph saying why with proof of CEU completion within a certain amount of time. I think it cost between 30-50$ to process?

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Talk about blowing something completely out of proportion. First, the audit isn't in California as I understand it so just take the necessary CEUs (which you can do in under an hour on Medscape). Is your California license even up for renewal at the same time as your compact license? I just googled the renewal process for each state for my own information and California licenses expire on the last day of the month following your birthday q 2 years whereas Florida appears to group their licenses and all current licenses expire either on 4/30/19, 4/30/20 or 7/31/20 so it seems like the answer to that question is no.

[jsnbsn]

I agree with the others that you should not give up your license so quickly. You never know when you might want to return to California, or what else that license surrender could affect in your career.

[rn_patrick, NP]

NJ publishes the BON actions against Nurses. Many of them are for not doing the CEU's as required because "Nobody ever gets audited..." Well people do get caught and have not done any of them. Then don't buy one of those 30 CEU online classes and get them done ASAP when requested. Or they lie and state that "Oh I lost them. All of them."

You were off by .2 hours. Take one more hour, copy them, put a letter going "I miscounted by 0.2 hours but you can see all the hours were done in a timely fashion." I did one extra hour, and next renewal I will do better with my math." You are not what they are looking for.

[EdieBrous, BSN, MSN]

"Voluntary" surrender is not like a non-disciplinary relinquishment. It is the legal equivalent of revocation. Make an appointment with a licensure attorney in California to explore all your options, understand the implications, and make decisions based upon having all the information from someone who does this for a living.