As a Certified Nursing Assistant in California, you have the option to become a Licensed Vocational Nurse in accordance with section 2873 of the Vocational Nursing Practice Act and section 2516 (b) of the California Code of Regulations.
Qualifying for the licensure examination based on prior education and experience, often referred to as "the equivalency method", requires you to provide documentation of a minimum of 51 months of paid general duty inpatient bedside nursing experience in a clinical facility and completion of a 54-theory-hour pharmacology course. If you have successfully completed additional formal nursing education, that education may be substituted for some of the required bedside nursing experience.
The equivalency method permits unlicensed individuals who have had extensive inpatient bedside nursing care experience, plus a limited amount of formal education, to demonstrate that they have acquired sufficient basic nursing knowledge to be eligible for the licensure examination.
Achieving LVN licensure via the equivalency method may limit your ability to be hired as a licensed vocational nurse or psychiatric technician since no other state accepts licensees who have been licensed via this method. In addition to licensure, some health care facilities within California require that their potential employees be graduates of approved nursing or psychiatric technician programs. Such facilities will not hire licensees who have achieved licensure via the equivalency method. If you have questions about licensure in another state, please contact that state's board of nursing. If you have questions about the hiring practice of a particular health care facility in California, please contact that facility.
Pursuant to the California Code of Regulations section 2516 (b), the 51 months of paid general duty inpatient bedside nursing experience must include a minimum of each of the following:
48 months medical/surgical nursing;
6 weeks maternity or genitourinary nursing;
6 weeks pediatric nursing.
The majority of the paid bedside nursing experience must have occurred in an inpatient clinical facility providing the types of patient care that will prepare the applicant for the content topics covered in the licensure examination. It is required that all experience must have occurred within the past ten years, with half of the required experience occurring in the past five years. The experience must have been recent enough that the applicant is knowledgeable regarding current types of patient care equipment, policies and procedures.
When calculating work experience, you can substitute up to a maximum of eight months of the required medical-surgical clinical experience with experience obtained outside of the acute care setting, however, a minimum of 40 months of medical-surgical experience must have occurred in an acute care facility. Paid work experience in the following areas will be applicable toward the eight months that can be substituted for acute medical-surgical experience: communicable disease nursing, public health nursing, occupational health nursing, office nursing (M.D.), psychiatric nursing, operating room nursing, private duty nursing performed in acute care facilities only, emergency room nursing, out patient clinic, post anesthesia recovery nursing, hemodialysis nursing, rehabilitation nursing, gerontological nursing or emergency medical technician service.
The following types of work experience will not be accepted: home health aide, in-home care provider, in-home hospice provider, board and care provider, residential care provider, unit secretary, ward clerk, transport aide, phlebotomist, monitor technician, field paramedic. This list is not all-inclusive, but is offered for clarification purposes.
In the application packet, an employment verification form is provided. You must provide a copy of this form to all employers. On the verification form, all paid bedside nursing experience must be verified by your employers indicating specific dates of employment and the number of hours worked in each area. The employment verification form must be mailed directly to the Board of Nursing by the employer in an official business envelope.
The verification of experience must also include certification from the director or supervisor (must be a registered nurse) that the applicant has satisfactorily demonstrated the following knowledge and skills:
Basic Bedside Nursing: ambulation techniques, bedmaking, urinary catheter care, collection of specimens, diabetic testing, administration of a cleansing enema, feeding patient, hot and cold applications, intake and output, personal hygiene and comfort measures, positioning and transfer, range of motion, skin care, vital signs, and communication skills, both verbal and written, including communication with patients who have psychological disorders.
Infection control procedures which may be demonstrated in classroom, lab, or patient care settings: asepsis and techniques for strict, contact, respiratory, enteric, tuberculosis, drainage, universal and immunosuppressed patient isolation.
Applicants who have acquired additional formal nursing education from an approved vocational nursing, practical nursing or registered nursing program may submit official transcripts for evaluation for possible credit in lieu of paid bedside nursing experience. The transcripts must be submitted to the Board of Nursing directly from the school where the courses were taken and must show theory and clinical hours completed, as well as the grades for each course. Applicants must achieve a C or better in the course in order to be given equivalency credit for the course. Credit will only be granted for those courses taken in approved vocational nursing, practical nursing, psychiatric technician or registered nursing programs.
In addition to the required paid bedside nursing experience, you must also have completed a pharmacology course of at least 54 theory hours that covers the following content: knowledge of commonly used drugs and their action, computation of dosages, preparation of medications and principles of administration.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the pharmacology course taken includes the required content topics listed above. When you submit the licensure examination application, you must present documentation that specifies the number of theory hours of the course, a course description and list the content presented. You can find additional information and requirements for licensure such as fees, photographs and background checks in the documents linked in this answer. The California Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians may be contacted at 916-263-7800 for additional guidance.