Nurses graduating from their educational program need jobs. You didn't put your time, funds, and efforts into your nursing education simply to sit on the sidelines while waiting for your state nursing board to issue you a license. You need your licensing issues swiftly and surely resolved. And in the meantime, you would benefit from some form of gainful employment.
Time is wasted. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to address and resolve your licensing issues. Consider the following questions and answers on what to do about your employment while we go to work, helping you qualify for licensure for a real nursing job.
Why Can't I Practice Nursing Without a License?
Because it's a crime in many states and unlawful in other states, subject to civil and administrative penalties, court injunction, and contempt penalties, you could end up in jail or heavily fined. Practicing without a nursing license can also be grounds for your state nursing board to deny you a license. Unlicensed practice is a common ground for disciplinary charges. For example, the California Business & Professions Code Sections 2795 and 2796, under which the California Board of Registered Nursing regularly cites hundreds of unlicensed nurses, barring them from licensure for having violated the California Nursing Practice Act. Don't fall into the trap of unlicensed practice. It could ruin your nursing career. Instead, get our help resolving your license issues.
Can I Even Get a Nursing Job Without a License?
No, you likely won't be able to get a nursing job without a valid license from your state nursing board. Employers of nurses routinely check state nursing board databases to confirm that the nurses they hire have a license in good standing and without discipline. State nursing practice acts prohibit employers from hiring unlicensed nurses. See, for example, California Business & Professions Code Section 2725.3, expressly barring healthcare facilities from allowing unlicensed nurses to practice. Your employer or the healthcare facility in which you work could lose their own license or get into other trouble if they allow you to practice nursing without a license. You need a license to practice nursing. Let us help you resolve your nursing license issues so that you can get started.
What About a Temporary License?
You may be able to get a temporary license from your state nursing board while you await the processing of your permanent or full license. Your state nursing practice act may authorize your state nursing board to issue a temporary license for a period, such as six months, on your preliminary showing that you have met or can meet all licensing requirements. Your state nursing board needs time to review your information and documentation, get background checks, and follow its standard process. A temporary permit can help you secure your nursing employment while waiting for your state nursing board to finish its full process.
The Texas Board of Nursing, for example, invites applicants for a nursing license to apply at the same time for a temporary license good for the common six-month period. Not all states offer temporary licenses. Some states, like Michigan, Illinois, and California, limit temporary licenses to applicants seeking licensure by endorsement from another state where they already hold a nursing license, not to new nurses seeking licensure by examination. We can help you determine whether you qualify for a temporary license and help you obtain it. But more so, let us help you address and resolve your underlying licensing issues so that your temporary license does not expire, leaving you unemployed.
What Is My Nursing License Hold Up?
You probably expected to jump right into nursing practice as soon as you graduated from nursing school. Yet you also understood that you would need a state nursing board license to get started in your nursing practice. Several things could be the cause of your license hold-up. State nursing boards generally have detailed licensure requirements, meaning a lot of hoops through which you must jump to get your license. For example, the licensing requirements of the Florida Board of Nursing are found in Section 464.008 of the Florida Nurse Practice Act. Those requirements include a completed application, payment of the license application fee, authorization of a criminal history check, proof of graduation from an approved nursing program, proof of good mental and physical health, proof of English proficiency, and passing the NCLEX. License application requirements may trigger any of the following issues, delaying your licensure:
- incomplete application information;
- inaccurate application information;
- missing application documentation;
- document copies rather than originals;
- inconsistencies between application statements and documentation;
- non-approved nursing education program;
- education program unsatisfactory academic progress;
- education program discipline or unresolved disciplinary charges;
- NCLEX failure;
- NCLEX cheating allegations;
- failure to show U.S. citizenship or lawful residency;
- disqualifying criminal convictions;
- license denial or discipline in other states or jurisdictions;
- evidence of mental or physical impairment;
- evidence of substance abuse or dependency;
- evidence of domestic violence.
Let our skilled and experienced attorneys help you with any of these issues or other licensing issues to speed up your licensure. Your rewarding nursing practice awaits your licensure.
What Can I Do to Speed My Licensing?
The best thing you can do to speed up the process of getting your license is to retain us so that we can swiftly and surely address your pending license issues. One or more of the above issues, or other peculiar issues, is delaying your licensure. Your state nursing board may or may not have notified you of the reasons for the delay. If not, our attorneys can communicate with board officials to determine the status of your license application and to identify any specific issues. Once we know the issue, we can help you address it with appropriate information and documentation. The first step in speeding your license is to retain us to identify and address your license issues.
What If My State Nursing Board Denies Me a License?
If your state nursing board has already denied your license application, then we can invoke the state nursing board's protective procedures to reverse the board's decision while addressing the underlying issues. State nursing laws generally offer some form of procedure to challenge state nursing board decisions affecting a nurse's ability to obtain or retain a license. Your constitutional due process rights likely require your state nursing board to give you fair notice of your license issues and a fair hearing to resolve them. See, for example, the Virginia Nurse Practice Act. The Act's Section 54.1-3007 permits the Virginia Board of Nursing to deny a license on specific grounds. However, the Act's Section 54.1-3040.5 authorizes the Board of Nursing to hold hearings on contested matters. The regulations the Board of Nursing has adopted under the Act codified at 18 Virginia Administrative Code 90-19-110 promise a hearing under the state's Administrative Procedures Act relating to the denial of a license. Let us help you invoke your state nursing board's procedures to resolve your licensing issues.
What Jobs Can I Do in the Meantime?
Just because you have not yet received your nursing license does not mean that you have no employment opportunities. You can still work. You just can't practice nursing without a license. You may have several other employment opportunities in and outside of the healthcare field that do not require a nursing license or other professional license.
You would likely prefer to work in the healthcare field, as near to your future nursing practice as possible. Why not use your downtime to gain employment experience with at least some relationship to nursing practice? Doing so can help build or confirm your relevant knowledge and skills while also preserving or establishing future nursing practice employment relationships. Your future nursing practice employer may even have a job available for you that does not require a nursing license and that you can perform until you get your license and move into nursing practice. Healthcare field jobs not requiring a nursing license may include:
- medical coding and billing;
- medical recordkeeping;
- medical scribe or transcription;
- medical practice secretarial work;
- medical administrative assistant;
- reception and information desk positions;
- medical equipment and facility maintenance;
- medical facility custodial work;
- home health aide or caregiver;
- assisted living facility assistant.
You may also find temporary employment at your nursing school, where you already have established relationships. You may be able to work as a graduate teaching or research assistant, academic advisor, or administrative assistant. While working in healthcare may build your professional reputation and network, you may find that taking other employment outside the healthcare field can earn you more income or better accommodate your schedule. Do the best you can until you get your nursing license and can take a real nursing job.
What Does My License Defense Attorney Do?
While you are working a temporary job that does not require a license, in or outside of the healthcare field, we can be hard at work resolving your nursing license issues. Our first step is generally to notify your state nursing board officials that you have retained us to address your licensing matter. By focusing their practice on professional license defense, our attorneys have built strong reputations and relationships that facilitate trust, confidence, and respect among state licensing officials. Our appearance on your behalf may alone significantly advance your licensing matter toward its favorable conclusion. We can often get action where an unrepresented nurse license applicant cannot.
Once we identify your specific license issue, we can go to work obtaining and providing the documentation and information your state nursing board requires to resolve it. If, for instance, you have pending disciplinary issues in your nursing education program, we can invoke nursing school procedures to address and resolve those issues, as well as obtain updated and corrected school records to clear up your licensing issues. If, for another example, your criminal history inaccurately shows a disqualifying conviction or pending charge, we can work with the court to resolve the issue and obtain the court clerk's corrected record. We can do the same with citizenship documentation, lawful immigration status issues, and issues having to do with your suspected mental or physical impairment or substance abuse issue.
What About My Nursing Job Offers?
You may have already received offers of employment that require that you have your nursing license. Given the national shortage of nurses and high demand for qualified nursing services, hospitals, medical centers, nursing homes, medical practices, and other employers hire nurses right out of nursing school. Employers hiring nurses right out of nursing school know that their new hires must complete their licensing process. Those employers often help their new hires obtain a temporary license or permit if available in the state.
If you do not qualify for a temporary license, the employer offering you a job may hold the offer for you until you complete your licensing procedure. Your employer may even have a temporary job for you that does not require a nursing license or may offer you orientation, training, or other advantages preparing you for licensed employment. You can, in other words, reasonably expect substantial cooperation on the employer's part while you await your nursing license as long as the employer believes that you qualify and have applied in good faith for that license. If, instead, the employer who has offered you a job requiring a nursing license learns of delays in your license application and that your application faces complicating issues, let us communicate with the employer to reassure the employer that we are diligently working to resolve those issues.
Premier License Defense Attorneys Available
If you face delays getting your nursing license after graduation, frustrating your employment, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team to address your licensing issues. We help hundreds of nurses and other professionals nationwide with state licensing board issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our skilled and experienced attorney representation.
