RN without RN school? West Virginia (WV) military medical personnel to RN

1 Have any former military persons had experience with applying to take the NCLEX-RN in West Virginia through their rule allowing certain military medical specialty-trained persons to take it and be licensed in WV without a formal ADN, BSN, or RN Certificate education program? Curious what your experiences are or what you have heard.
Hmm - take a look at THIS - table outlining all of the US nursing licensure requirements. If I'm interpreting it correctly, WVa military equivalency is only for LPN. Check page 10 of the document for the complete listing of states which have military equivalency options.
That would appear true looking at the 'general rules,' but there's a specific exception in the WV code for military medical folks: West Virginia Code
Quote from nicktexasThat would appear true looking at the 'general rules,' but there's a specific exception in the WV code for military medical folks: West Virginia Code
I would go for it only if you were never expecting to work outside of West Virginia.
Oh, silly people. I don't live in West Virginia and never intend to. I'm hoping I can use it to enter an "RN to BSN" program that doesn't specify that you need an ADN to apply, or require the RN license be in any particular state. It's just a 'curious pathway' I'm exploring. I may end up doing something more traditional.
You will probably run into licensure issues in other states trying to endorse your WV license, meaning it will be very difficult to work in another state with the pathway you are looking in to. That is what we are trying to tell you. Those BSN programs may also require transcripts from a nursing school to show you completed an accredited program before entering an RN to BSN program.Have you looked into ABSN programs at all (if you have a degree already)?
Quote from nicktexasOh, silly people. I don't live in West Virginia and never intend to. I'm hoping I can use it to enter an "RN to BSN" program that doesn't specify that you need an ADN to apply, or require the RN license be in any particular state. It's just a 'curious pathway' I'm exploring. I may end up doing something more traditional.
I agree with what both of you have said for the most part. There are some states that it looks like they would accept it after completion of a diploma, ADN, or BSN. After reading through my state's NPA, I don't think mine is one of them. I think I'll still go ahead and do it though. Partly for the novelty of being able to say I'm an RN in a state I've never lived in, but not my own. But mostly because I plan to do some volunteer work at a local federal facility, and would be able to volunteer as an RN and get broader experience under the supervision of the permanent staff/more experienced RNs.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the VA accepts an RN license from any state.It is entirely appropriate that ex mil medics and corpsmen, with qualifying training and clinical hours, are eligible to take the NCLEX and be afforded the opportunity to provide health care to our veterans.
The short answer is, "Sorta," for any federal institution. Most job postings require that you have a degree, or diploma, and may take a certain amount of military training in lieu of but only for certain pay grades.Here's an example from the Bureau of Prisons:"Education:Applicants must have degree or diploma from a professional nursing program approved by the legally designated State accrediting agency at the time the program was completed by the applicant. (One year of nursing experience as a military corpsman that has been accepted by a State licensing body may be accepted in lieu of education at the GS-04 level.)"(It won't unbold for some reason, sorry) So basically, an RN license from any state with no ADN/diploma/BSN would get you a maximum of GS-4, which is actually less than an LVN can make with experience at the VA/BOP or other agencies.Now this is where federal jobs get.. interesting: How a job is written matters. In this particular job advertisement, it lists additional ways to meet requirements for GS-5, 6, 9, etc"GS-07:Completion of a professional nursing program AND 1 year of experience equivalent to at least the GS-05 level OR 1 full year of graduate education or bachelor's degree with superior academic achievement. GS-09:2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education or a master's or equivalent degree OR 1 year of experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level. "The GS-07 description and GS-09 descriptions are interesting, because the author requires either one or two years of graduate education. Notice that it does not say, "In a program leading towards an MSN."It becomes interesting because in the federal government, the way it's written is generally what they have to hire based on, or cancel the advertisement and re-write it. I'm not sure how it would play out in the hiring process to be honest, but I do know quite a few people with graduate degrees that are not in nursing, undergraduate degrees not in nursing, who are also RNs, so by the letter of the advertisement they would meet those qualifications.In short - yes, you can work at a federal facility as an RN from any state. How that translates into pay grade could be much more complex.
Here's another example, this one from a VA position:[FONT=Arial]Nurse I Level I - An Associate Degree (ADN) or Diploma in Nursing, no experience.[/FONT][FONT=Arial]Nurse I Level II - An ADN or Diploma in Nursing and approximately 1 year of experience, or an ADN or Diploma in Nursing and a bachelor's degree in a related field and no experience; or a Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN) and no experience.[/FONT][FONT=Arial]Nurse I Level III - An ADN or Diploma in Nursing and approximately 2-3 years of experience, or an ADN or Diploma in Nursing and a bachelors degree in a related field and approximately 1-2 years of experience; or a BSN with approximately 1-2 years of experience, or a Master's degree in nursing (MSN) or related field with a BSN and no experience.[/FONT][FONT=Arial]Nurse II - A BSN with approximately 2-3 years of experience, or ADN or Diploma in Nursing and a bachelors degree in a related field and approximately 2-3 years experience or a Master's degree in nursing or related field with a BSN and approximately 1-2 years experience, or a Doctoral degree in nursing or meets basic requirements for appointment and has doctoral degree in a related field with no experience. [/FONT][FONT=Arial]Nurse III - Master's degree in nursing or related field with BSN and approximately 2-3 years experience or Doctoral degree in nursing or related field and approximately 2-3 years experience. [/FONT]Note that this one takes a lot more care in specifying exactly what type of education it must be, but still allows for example for an RN with a nursing diploma and a BS in some other "related" field to qualify for higher pay grades.If you get bored, go to usajobs.gov and type in registered nurse in the search box. You'll find that the requirements for various pay grades vary widely.
The above job requirements also beg the question, "what is a nursing diploma?"