Members are discussing the importance of renewing nursing licenses on time and sharing personal experiences with license renewal processes. Some members highlight the consequences of not renewing on time, while others share tips on organizing renewal documents. There is also a conversation about the potential disciplinary actions for working with an expired license and the importance of taking responsibility for license renewal.
I messed up. My RN license expired 5 weeks ago, and I just realized it yesterday. I've been working on an expired license for 5 weeks!
I know that it is my responsibility, and I dropped the ball. But here are my excuses: I currently work in occupational health as a contractor. In the past, my manager would alert the staff as to when their RN license was about to expire. No such entity exists at my current job. Also: I moved recently. I didn't recieve the renewal notice for the BON. (I also didn't alert the BON as to my change of address, so there you go.) Again, I understand that these aren't valid excuses, and I feel really REALLY stupid.
I'm up to date on all of my CEUs. I'm going back for my BSN, so I have tons of credits. There have been zero issues with my license in the past, and for what it's worth, my current job can be considered "Nursing Lite". I do not give out meds or treat patients. I essentially take vital signs and give hearing and vision tests. I do sign 'RN" after my name, and I know that it is necessary for an RN to do my job, however.
My question: What kind of penalties can I expect? Is there anything I can do or say to the board that might help? I have the ultimate goal of becoming an NP, and I don't want a mark on my license to keep me from getting accepted into an NP program. I love my job, and I don't want to get my employer into trouble or make any waves.
The College of Nurses Ontario CNO (Canadian equivalent of BON) switched from paper to online renewal in 2011 and 2,925 nurses had their licenses temporarily suspended for failing to renew on time. The suspension lasted for a short period while their licenses were reinstated and there was no lasting disciplinary action on their licenses.
I spoke to my employer, and they are totally fine with me doing non-nurse duties (I.e. tons of paperwork.) until I get this resolved.
The "ton of paperwork"... that is SIGNED by a registered nurse... is why you have that job.
With all due respect: you have no idea what my specific job entails.
I'm helping to develop a software system for tracking employee records for the facility where I work. It's a big job and it will take a month or so. You don't have to be an RN to do that part of my job.
Based only on your posts on this thread: you sound like a bully. Nobody likes bullies.
That would be nice. As OP is in PA, it's not quite so easy to remember- licenses expire at either the end of October or the end of April, in an odd or even year based on the year? month? you were born. Some people (like yours truly) were issued an initial license that didn't last much more than a year, even though the license period is supposed to be 2 years. Guess it makes it easier for the BON- only issuing renewals twice a year, but not so easy for those holding the license.
I can see how it would be easy to forget to renew in PA, where I am, we have an easy to remember renewal date, it is December 31st for everyone and there is a late grace period until mid February, but still, there are a couple of hundred nurses who forget to renew and are given temporary suspensions every year. I imagine there would be even more nurse who forget to renew in a hard to remember system like PA.
If a nurse takes the right steps to deal with their lapsed license, as saintchristopher is doing, there is no reason to judge.
I believe I have posted about this before. I had a coworker who "forgot" to renew their license for 4 years.. My employer had finally asked for her license renwel notice, and then was when it all came to a head.
The state made her pay a small fine and they had to obtain less than 50 CE's. My employer at the time didn't punish them either..
The first time my license came up for renewal, I missed it somehow. My boss kept good records and asked to see my renewal. It was about a week before it was going to expire. I was so embarrassed, as I had to be taken off the schedule until I could provide proof of renewal. I think it was only a matter of days, and I never worked so much as one shift with an expired license, but that was a lesson I never forgot.
To this day, sometimes I will dream that I suddenly realize that I've been working on an expired license for months, and in these dreams I am always freaking out. Then I wake up and sigh with relief.
The only dreams I have that are worse are the ones where I am giving report to the ICU night shift and when I am done, the receiving nurse says "Now, tell me about Mr. Jones in room 109." I respond, "oh, he wasn't my patient." She disagrees, pointing at the board, which shows my name next to his room number. I've worked 12 hours in the ICU without even once walking into that patient's room. OMG OMG OMG.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
There's a whole thread about nursing nightmares. The "I haven't seen one patient all shift" dream is common; it's certainly the one I've been plagued by. I haven't had the expired license dream, but there's always tonight!
Consider yourself lucky you went into nursing. In EMS, if a Paramedic or even an EMT forgot to renew their license and still remained on the job, there would be a news article which would make the newsfeeds everywhere. The company would then face penalties from the insurances and Medicare for failing to provided a licensed person at the patient's side during transport since you technically are not licensed after the expiration date. The company may even have to make a public apology and assure the public everyone is still safe since they are part of Public Safety and EMS which means being held to a higher standard. For the professions (PT, OT, RT) mentioned in another discussion about billing, besides the hospital, each of them might have to answer to the insurances. At least nursing seems to be very lenient.
Your hospital has a serious problem if it allowed this to happen. There should be some type of reminder for license expiration.
sainttchristopher
10 Posts
Thank you so much!