how to renew your nursing license while in a foreign country on a ship

Step 1. Wait until close to the last minute to work on continuing education hours.

Step 2. Check the board of nursing website to verify nursing license number for continuing education hours.

Step 3. Notice comment line on renewal date “Fingerprints required for renewal”.

Step 4. Freak out….I’m on a ship in West Africa?!?!?!?!?!

Step 5. Call the board of nursing and ask for a deferment, get denied.

Step 6. Freak out a bit more…call the purser to ask about the chances of being fingerprinted at the U.S. embassy.

Step 7. Wait until the next morning for the embassy to be open (just b/c it is an emergency to me doesn’t necessarily constitute an actual emergency).

Step 8. Find out fingerprints can only be done by the Sierra Leone government due to the country law.

Step 9. Call the board of nursing and ask for them to mail the fingerprint card.

Step 10. Wait.

Step 11. Wait some more.

Step 12. Receive the paperwork and head to the purser’s office to gain assistance in getting to the police station.

Step 13. Get fingerprinted by the local police.

Step 14. Call my sister-in-law to send a check for the renewal fee (did I mention I’m on a ship in West Africa? She has my checks.)

Step 15. Fill out the paperwork. Worry over what to put in the zip code of employer line…that whole ship thing again.

Step 16. Worry about how to figure out what my primary area of nursing is since I met 13 of 16 possible choices. Choose other. (options included pediatrics, ICU, medical/surgical, community health, post-operative...yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...other it is)

Step 17. Write a letter to go with all the forms. (fax it just in case it gets lost)

Step 18. Put the envelope into the hands of a trusted friend to put in the mail the moment she arrives back in the States.

Step 19. Wait. And pray.

Step 20. Wait some more.

Step 21. Decide to check the board of nursing website even though it is too soon for any decision and find my license has been renewed!

Step 22. Share with my boss and friends and family and cry happy tears of relief. Thank God for His hand over all of it.