Hi, to all my fellow kabayans out there! I have been following these topics for almost a year now and so saddened by the current state of affairs that has been troubling all of us in dealing with the issues with the CA BON.
I too along with several of my batchmates with either having the same concurrency problem or not enough hours in those certain courses to satisfy the CA BON requirements. Even their friends from other Phils colleges are in the same boat and everyone trying to get their ATT, some having been denied twice, told that to meet the minimum requirements going to a US approved college will help get us thru, etc.
From all my readings here on this site, who is to blame in this crisis we are all facing?
-- The CA BON? NO, we are in their territory, we have to meet their requirements, their rules, their regulations, their minimums. So many of our batchmates and their friends have been reapplying twice or more times or not even having to be able to get a chance to take the NCLEX exam.
-- The CA evaluators/analyst? NO, they are only doing their job. They must also enforce and apply the same rules/regulations to not only us but to any applicants, be they from a local to other states to other overseas countries) wanting to get licensed in CA. If, not, then they could lose their jobs and in this economy, it would be very hard to find another type of job they have working with the CA BON and still put food on the table or pay for the lights in their living places.
-- CA rules and regulations? NO, it's been there for many years from my understanding in other posts here, we're not going to change their rules or requirements. There has been NO recent changes or additions to their requirements, only the current enforcement of the ones already in place for years. There's no reason for them to accomodate us and with understanding as there's no longer any more nursing shortage in CA or in 99% of the US. Too many US unemployed nurses everywhere and very little available job openings that doesn't need experience and more so, if so many of us are new grads.
On another note: one of my friend's has a good family member who is from Phils and a practicing CA lawyer for over 16 years, he is not an employment nor labor attorney, he is in business and taxation ligitation, but as a favor to her, he was asked about the CA BON denial letters received of the concurrence and insufficient hours requirements, after several months of inquiries and investigation, it was of his professional opinion, that the CA BON stands correct in their position and that legally, we "don't have any legal grounds to stand on". The advice of either trying to find some kind of remedial classes or re-taking of a complete CA approved nursing program is the best and main option open to us affected. He also finds it very suspicious of those applicants getting their ATT and others being denied from the same batchmates, same schooling, same instructors and could result in future legal action taken against them for "knowingly and willfully submitting false information" to the CA BON, even if the RN licensee claims he/she didn't know it was not the truth. There is NO limitation that the CA BON could revoke or suspend the CA license even if endorsed to another state. What is worst is if other state has severe financial or other penalties, they can enforce it and could be much worse than in CA.
So who is to BLAME?
-- Our own colleges and universities? YES, a definite yes! I have a very good and reliable source from one of our batchmate's relative/father who is very well associated to the CHED. They (CHED) have always known of these same minimum CA BON requirements for many years. But they have always thought that why fix our own country's nursing management and philisophies if it's not broken and we're not obligated to our Phils to move on to the US, even though, it's understood there's a very high percentage will be leaving Phils and mostly to CA, but that's their problem, not ours. Well, it is now! It's now insane to attend a Phils college if anyone today wants to get a nursing job in CA.
They never imagined that one day the CA BON would clamp down on their requirements. It was always preached to them (not from the US side, but from so many of the members of the CHED) that with the nursing shortages in CA and all over the States, they could keep teaching new nurses to meet the growing demand in the States. However, it's been a real problem in the States since 2009, but CHED didn't want to believe that or did believe it but wanted to keep the process going and why alert the students already enrolled and wanting to enroll, maybe the problem will be washed away.
-- Ourselves? YES and no. We should have known that even though, many of the Phils are accredited and some are even ISO-certified, but it means nothing to the outside of the walls of the Phils borders. Yes, it's true that we are just poor students studying hard every day and night, having so much stress and worries for 4 years, finding ways to pay for our education, our families making the tough sacrifices both emotionally and financially, giving up many good times that our other non-nursing friends enjoyed, but figured it will be worth the long sacrifices once we get a job in the States.
-- Global recession? YES. From what we read in the other topics here, many of the older US nurses cannot afford to quit their jobs now due to so many have lost so much money in their retirement banks, many nurses have to come back to work and reactive their US license so they can make more money either due to their own spouses are unemployed or have had some changes in their lives and need to come up with some extra money, so in all of this, many are not leaving their jobs or have refilled them and leaves no more empty spots to be filled. With the US unemployment rate so high, many cannot longer afford the health insurance or have lost it completely and much less patients coming in to see a doctor, so many sick people and their family members don't have the financial means to pay for the medical cost, which in turn, helps to pay the nurses.
So guys, we can no longer depend on getting a license in CA or in other states that are affected by this, much less find a good job in the States like years before. My batchmates and many others we know are being more realistic now and understand we just need to pack up, move on and find some other states to apply into or even other countries. Maybe there still might be a few of us that will get pass and be able to pass the NCLEX the first time in CA. We are all tired from getting those rejection letters!
Some of my batchmates have heard that other US states may soon do what the CA BON has been enforcing, if it is already the other state's requirements, which is only going to squueze all of us into a tighter area.
Solution(s):
-- I don't have any of the immediate problems, maybe others do here?
-- I think once the US economy does get better one of these years, we'll hopefully be employed in the other states and able to come back to CA (which honestly is about another high percentage of Phils grads wanting to work in CA due to family, weather, salaries, etc) with years of experience and then, maybe then, we'll truly have the nursing shortage that is so hyped up in the media and in our schools.
-- Hope that if a big nursing shortage does happen later on, the CA BON will be able to "bend" the rules for us.
Well, I have vented long enough, what do you guys think? We can do this, but probably not in CA for the present time.
