Next Stop – Columbus, Ohio

This year so far, I’ve worked in San Diego, CA and Virginia Beach, VA. These are two places I’ve worked in before. I knew for my next assignment I wanted to go somewhere new. The geriatric clinics I often work for had a need in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve never been to Ohio and thought it would be a nice idea to go there for the end of summer and fall.

I accepted an assignment with them in March, for a start date in August. I thought I would have plenty of time to get an OH license. Turns out, things happened more slowly because of covid. The Board of Nursing worked from home and it was almost impossible to get in touch with them. I tried both calling and emailing them without a response.

Luckily, I remembered I had a reader that was licensed in OH and I was curious about his experience. I reached out to him to see how long it took him to obtain his OH license. Since OH is not a compact license state, I needed both the RN and NP licenses. OH doesn’t allow you to apply for both licenses upon endorsement simultaneously. So, I needed to wait for the RN license to get approved before applying for the NP one.

After waiting 2 months for the RN approval – still nothing. That’s when I reached out to my reader and he told me that there are Facebook groups that have Board of Nursing contact information in each state to help facilitate license applications.

He gave me the contact information for the Ohio Board of Nursing President. I sent her an email saying I was still waiting on my RN license approval, in which everything was submitted 8 weeks ago. That same night (it was even a Saturday), I finally received notice that my RN license was approved!

I was thrilled that this tip worked. When it was getting close to August, I still hadn’t received my NP license. I decided to use the same email to inquire about my application. The following day, my NP application was approved!

Thanks to my reader’s tip, I was able to get my OH licenses just in time for my start date. I will be sure to look up Board of Nursing contact information on Facebook groups for future state license applications.