License

[pillu]

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What happens if your educational limited license expires and your renewal or permanent license process is still pending? Will you still be allowed to work as resident or will you be asked to wait until the license is approved? Do we have a grace period after expiration of previous license to cover until new license is issued?

 

[Apollyon]

If you are a resident, and your resident/limited license expires and you don't renew, your program or hospital should pull you offline, as you are not legal to work any more.

If you complete your residency, your limited license expires, as you need to be a resident/trainee for the license, and, when the program is done, so are you. You can't continue to be a resident after you've finished the residency.

Now, if you complete residency and don't have your full license yet, you sit and wait until you get it.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Agree with Appollyon....

you cannot work if you do not have a license. Now some programs will allow you to work if your license has been issued (ie, they have verification from the board) but you simply do not have it "in hand". Technically, they are not supposed to, but check with your program coordinator about their policy.

if you are post-residency/fellowship training without a license, you do like me...sit around and moonlight until you get your license in your new state and the credentialing process is done.

As an aside, many residents do not realize how long it can take to get a new license and hospital credentials. It is not unheard of in certain states (like Texas, California, New Jersey, New York) to take 6-8 months. I say this because if you don't accept a job until the end of your residency and are moving out of state, you may have to find another income source until the credentialling is completed. At least I knew how long it would take, just didn't find the job I wanted until May.🙄

 

[gutonc]

If you're still a resident and you were hoping to avoid having to pay for 2 licenses this year, you're SOL (or you can sit on the sidelines for 6 mos and finish off-cycle). Pony up for the limited license while you're waiting for your permanent to show up in the mail. Practicing w/o a license is one of those things that will haunt you in the future if you get busted for it (and it's a simple matter of an intertron search to determine if you are practicing w/o one). It's also one of the things that your residency contract likely says they can terminate you immediately, without warning or prejudice for. Go to your GME office yesterday and play dumb about losing/forgetting your limited app and the check and fill one out now. If you do it through the GME office it will likely get processed faster and you'll be in better shape...hopefully.

 

[Stimulate]

In my state when I applied for permanent license they sent me a letter back stating that my training license was valid until I was notified of approval/rejection of my permanent application. You may want to check and see if your state is the same.

 

[radonc]

Agree with Appollyon....

you cannot work if you do not have a license. Now some programs will allow you to work if your license has been issued (ie, they have verification from the board) but you simply do not have it "in hand". Technically, they are not supposed to, but check with your program coordinator about their policy.

if you are post-residency/fellowship training without a license, you do like me...sit around and moonlight until you get your license in your new state and the credentialing process is done.

As an aside, many residents do not realize how long it can take to get a new license and hospital credentials. It is not unheard of in certain states (like Texas, California, New Jersey, New York) to take 6-8 months. I say this because if you don't accept a job until the end of your residency and are moving out of state, you may have to find another income source until the credentialling is completed. At least I knew how long it would take, just didn't find the job I wanted until May.🙄

the actual approval process of a license only takes 1-2 months. however, the application is tedious and you must retrieve info from your med school, internship/residency(ies), NBME, FBI, official letters of recs, etc. this is what takes the majority of time. they will not review your application till its complete.

i would recommend that people use an application bank like the FCVS which is a part of the FSMB. they can keep ALL of your records, and send them to state boards or hospitals and are an 'official' source of verification of your credentials. its easier to have this 'bank' keep your records, then keep requesting them from sources 5, 10, 20 years down the road.

 

[Blade28]

Agree with radonc. I applied for the FCVS "packet" way back in mid-April, and only recently was informed that it was complete. I'm currently awaiting my GA medical license (which can take 6-8 weeks, apparently...I've waited around 6-7 so far).

Then you need a DEA number too. And hospital privileges. Sometimes this entails BLS/ACLS as well.