An Bord Altranais registration appeal process

kstewart87

Hi,

Has anyone out there gone through the registration appeal process with an bord altranais?

I have been waiting since June to hear back from the board regarding my registration, and today I got a letter saying that I don't qualify for registration and have the right to appeal the decision. I received my nursing education in one of the best nursing schools in the US, and ABA is now saying I don't even have half the required clinical hours. Any US nurses out there that have been successful getting their registration with ABA? please help!

MaiKundi

Sorry to hear about that but from my understanding they have never directly registered any nurse from Australia/Canada and the US because of the total number of hour both theoretically and clinically.How many years did you take to complete your nursing qualification?I am still to receive my decision letter even though they say they have reached a decision.Tell me how it goes.All the best.

kstewart87

My program was 4 years long, I have a bachelors degree in nursing. But the actual nursing component of it was only 2 years.. it's a totally different system in the US. They didn't just not directly register me, they didn't even give me a chance to do an orientation! We'll see what happens with the appeal, it's going to be another 6 months at least, i can already tell.
Did you get your decision letter? I hope you got good news!

MaiKundi

Well you know how it goes.I am yet to receive the letter even though they reached a decision 20 days ago!I have been waiting since July last year.I hope i receive it soon.Good luck with your appeals process!

jesbon

am a registred nurse from India have applied for AN Bord decission letter. could anybody advsie me about the duration of getting issued the decission letter from ANBord, please.
JEs

kstewart87

Jes, when I applied they told me it usually takes 6 weeks, but they had a high number of applicants so it could take up to 8 weeks... IT TOOK 20+!
They tell you not to move to Ireland until you have your decision letter.. unfortunately it wasn't that simple for me, I had to move before I had my letter. But if you are at all able to wait for it at home, I would highly encourage you to do that.

You might have figured this out already, but it is close to impossible to communicate with these people. The registration department is the only one you are "allowed" to have contact with, and they are NOT well informed on the actual requirements to obtain your registration. I was denied and given very very vague reasons for it.. I wanted to be informed on the specifics of why, what exactly my education was missing... but they denied me a meeting, or any information regarding my specific case. All they gave me was a document that stated the requirements, but didn't specify which one I didn't meet! It was absolutely ridiculous. I hope you have a better experience than mine.

I decided not to give this organisation any extra money and that it just wasn't worth my time to appeal their decision since they seem incapable reasonable thinking. Instead, I sent my documents to Switzerland, where they will assess your dossier for FREE and tell you a decision within 1-2 months (took exactly 1.5 months, no delays). If you have a positive result, you can then pay to get your license, which I didn't mind because I knew for a fact that I was going to be successful. I didn't even have to do any extra training or education, and the level of nursing in Switzerland and working conditions are faaaar superior to Ireland. So.. do consider Switzerland if things don't work out with An Bord Altranais, although I really hope it works out for you. You would have to prove your knowledge of one of their three official languages (german, french or italian).. this might be a scary thought if you don't know any of these languages, but you will be half way there by the time you hear back from An Bord! no joke.

sorry for the lengthy reply.. I just remember I would have killed for an accurate time frame and some advice when I was waiting for my letter.. so I hope it's useful. Good luck to you!

Kristopherus

@Kstewart87,did you look for the info you want from the under the Freedom of Information Act. ABA are a public body and therefore should come under of FOI.

kstewart87

Interesting, I had no idea that existed. Would have been an interesting path to pursue.. but I am content with where I am at this point after obtaining my recognition in Switzerland, possibilities for further education are vast and working conditions much better. Now I am actually grateful they were so inefficient, oddly enough, and I don't have the energy any more to deal with An Bord Altranais or any other Irish government body for that matter (don't get me wrong.. I still think most people in Ireland are awesome, and sad to leave so soon). But based on my experience with ABA, I think knowing about the FOI act could be very useful to many people in the future, so thank you!

jesbon

Thank you,
however,I'd like to have some more opinion about it and waiting for the same.
regards,
Jes

Bombboy78

Would like to know of those who have had bad experiences with an bord altranais. They have told my wife that she needs to do an adaptation course in order to register, fair enough. They charged €175 fee and no adaptation course exists and has not for previous 8 years or so. I have contacted politicians and ombudsman (ABA omly came under their remit on 1 may 2013 and their devision was made before this date) and they've done nothing. I would like to put pressure on them and there's weight in numbers. I'm not letting them get away with this. So if you would like to pm emails I will coordinate

Kiwibird

I asked ABA why they took people's money knowing that the applicants would need to do an adaptation and that there were no courses(they do know this fact and still send out a list of hospitals all of which have stopped doing the courses)
The reply was that they were legally not allowed to refuse an application! I emailed the irish minister of Health and had a reply that they would look into it but have not heard anything back.
I don't know where your wife did her training . I trained in Nz but have been working in England and so they still say I need an adaption course . However on researching as no one is helpful I discovered a clause in the E U directives for transfering professional qualifications to an EU country-it's available on line- and I needed an EU verification of my qualification- so appealed with that and quoted the EU directive(which they didn't know about!) and after 12months have finally been successful so keep trying think outside the box and find another way.
I am still going to complain as the whole experience has been dreadful.

Pola007

Hi all

Is anyone currently still following up with registration with An Bord. I got a rejection for my registration and I want to appeal - but its another 150 Euro and the reasons are so vague for the rejection. I am a nurse trained in the USA - Bachelor of science with years of experience!

Has anyone considerer legal action against an bord? This organization needs to be exposed for the amount of money it launders in the false pretences of registration- appeals- periods of adaptation...

There also appears to be some discrimination going on. I am also wondering if anyone with a rejection or requested for a period of adaptation has any obvious minority status?
pola

crobar

Hi all,

Just want to add my voice to people's painful experience dealing with ABA.

Currently, my girlfriend is in the process of applying to ABA as an overseas applicant. At the moment, they have told us that they can't proceed with processing her application any further as they are still awaiting one final form from her home qualifying nurse registration board. The thing is, we know for a fact that the form in question was sent over 3 weeks ago, but has just not yet been opened/processed yet by ABA.

It's getting really quite serious for us now as my girlfriend has already moved over to Ireland, she has actually already found a job and they are waiting for her to start, but she can't due to ABA not being able to process through this final part of her application. She actually started the application process way back in March/April!

Trying to deal with them is so painful and ridiculous... they keep telling us that we have to wait for this final form to be received/processed, even though we know it's been sent to them weeks ago. They have also insisted that this form has to sent from her home country by post and no other means of sending it can be accepted. Having it like this seems so convenient for them as they can then just continue to say that oh no the form hasn't been received yet. Surely in this day and age, an email or faxed copy from the overseas body in question should also be acceptable!

Has anyone else out there got a similar experience with this kind of delay?

I definitely agree that they seem to have some kind of unstated bias against registering nurses from overseas in any kind of timely fashion. For the amount of money that you have to pay to even apply as an overseas candidate it's scandalous to be told (as I have been) that they are understaffed to deal with processing applications.

locum-motion

crobar wrote: »

.... Surely in this day and age, an email or faxed copy from the overseas body in question should also be acceptable!...

Don't know if this is the case here or not, but it could be that they need the actual document rather than a copy of it.

For example, neither a fax nor a scan/e-mail/print of a prescription is legally a prescription; in both cases, they are essentially a picture of a prescription and do provide evidence that a prescription exists, but the prescriber never signed his name on the fax/printed sheet, and so therefore it is not a prescription and a pharmacist cannot use it to dispense.

Dozen Wicked Words

I don't think they have bias against anyone, I think they are incapable of doing their job. They are useless, and for the poor job they are doing, they have increased their yearly fee from 80 euro two years ago to 150 this coming registration. Not fit for purpose.

crobar

locum-motion wrote: »

Don't know if this is the case here or not, but it could be that they need the actual document rather than a copy of it.

Yes, fair enough that they need the actual document, but in our case we know that it has been sent to them over 3 weeks ago. My main issue with them is getting a truthful answer from them on the phone, I've asked if we should be trying to get this document sent again but have been told that it could be there alright, but just not processed yet. How long it could take to open the post and process it?? Who knows!

Was originally told a one week backlog, but after that time had past and called again we've now been told that due to staffing issues there is a larger backlog, but no idea how long it genuinely is taking them to open and process through their post.

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

I don't think they have bias against anyone, I think they are incapable of doing their job. They are useless, and for the poor job they are doing, they have increased their yearly fee from 80 euro two years ago to 150 this coming registration. Not fit for purpose.

What's so annoying is to be told that after having paid €350 for her overseas application (this fee went up by some ridiculous % compared to last year's fee btw), there is not enough staff there to open and process the post! So €350 x very large number of applications (which is what I've been told) = quite a lot of cash... and you can't employ enough people to then open and process through the incoming post?!

My girlfriend has previously worked in Switzerland as nurse. There she said the entire registration process took a matter of days and was free as she was already an EU qualified nurse. Meanwhile in Ireland they're still looking for her letter in the post...

Pola007

Trying to deal with them is so painful and ridiculous... they keep telling us that we have to wait for this final form to be received/processed, even though we know it's been sent to them weeks ago.


I feel your pain. But here is a warning to anyone dealing with the Irish Nursing board, when you deal with them make sure it is in writing. These scandalous people will use anything to delay processing your application which they eventually deny. I wish I had the resources to get this body investigated. What they are doing is not right!