Working under expired license

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If a nurse were to forget to renew their license, and continued working for an entire month, how likely do you think it is that the BON would allow him/her to keep his/her license? Anyone have experience with this?

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

The hospital at which I have worked are very proactive about licensure. They send email after email starting about 3 months before your license expires until you renew it. If you don't you will not work, starting the first day after the license expires, so no grace period from the hospital.

As for the BON, I don't know their views on it, but I would contact them right away to find out how to get back into good standing. Don't mess around with this. I would imagine that you can get into big trouble for practicing without a license.

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Are you referring to yourself or someone else? If it's someone else I don't think the members here want to participate in a witch hunt.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Are you referring to yourself or someone else? If it's someone else I don't think the members here want to participate in a witch hunt.

I just assumed (Gasp!) that the OP was talking about her license. I do agree with Wuzzie, though, if it someone else's license.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the Nursing Advice forum

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If a nurse were to forget to renew their license, and continued working for an entire month, how likely do you think it is that the BON would allow him/her to keep his/her license? Anyone have experience with this?

You "forgot" to renew your license, despite the notifications from the BON and your employer?

BTW, there's no such thing as working "under an expired license" -- you're just working without a license. Your employer didn't catch this? I remember when a close friend of mine didn't realize, at our first renewal out of nursing school, that there was no grace period and it was really important to renew on time, and let her initial license expire; the first day she showed to work after her license had expired, she was met at the employee entrance to the hospital by someone from nursing administration, who told her to go home and not come back until she had an active license again.

The sooner you get this dealt with, the better. Whatever the BON consequences may be, they will just get worse the longer you work without an active license.

Best wishes --

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Specializes in ICU.

My state BON would have a fit if you were working here without a renewed license! And yes, you would be in trouble.

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Specializes in Pedi.
You "forgot" to renew your license, despite the notifications from the BON and your employer?

BTW, there's no such thing as working "under an expired license" -- you're just working without a license. Your employer didn't catch this? I remember when a close friend of mine didn't realize, at our first renewal out of nursing school, that there was no grace period and it was really important to renew on time, and let her initial license expire; the first day she showed to work after her license had expired, she was met at the employee entrance to the hospital by someone from nursing administration, who told her to go home and not come back until she had an active license again.

The sooner you get this dealt with, the better. Whatever the BON consequences may be, they will just get worse the longer you work without an active license.

Best wishes --

This is what happened at the hospital I worked at too. They kept track of everyone's licenses and, if you showed up to work after your license expired and hadn't renewed it, you were sent home.

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This is what happened at the hospital I worked at too. They kept track of everyone's licenses and, if you showed up to work after your license expired and hadn't renewed it, you were sent home.

Hospitals and other healthcare employers are responsible for tracking employees' licenses and ensuring that all their employees have valid, active licenses. Just as nurses can get in trouble with the BON for working without a license, the employers can get in trouble with the regulatory agencies to which they answer for not tracking and verifying staff licenses.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

Simply put, if you work with an expired license, you're working without a license. That can result in disciplinary action by the BON. What that action will be depends upon the BON. Hospitals won't (usually) let anyone show up to work that has an expired license because they also face discipline for allowing an employee to actually perform work under an expired license. Everywhere I've worked or am familiar with will have those employees stay home until the issue is corrected. Where I currently work, this also applies to any required certificates for a given position as well. I know several nurses that weren't able to renew their CPR cards and they weren't allowed to return to work until they'd been renewed.

Don't depend upon your employer to track this stuff for you... do it yourself because you're the one primarily responsible for keeping all your licenses and required certs active.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

Hit and run? :unsure:

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If a nurse were to forget to renew their license, and continued working for an entire month, how likely do you think it is that the BON would allow him/her to keep his/her license? Anyone have experience with this?

Just renew the license ASAP. Believe me, a month late is nothing compared to some I've seen.

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