Is there Anything You Are Really Looking Forward To?

Is there anything you are really looking forward to?

Getting my medical license. The process is so painful that sometimes I feel like stabbing myself in the heart and gouging my eye out, and jumping off a bridge at the same time. And the most frustrating part of it is that there’s not a single thing I can do to speed things up. The website isn’t very user friendly. T request way too many documents. Like, you need to submit 6 different things to prove your citizenship. Can’t it be assumed that if the Federal Government gave me a passport, t know that it’s because I’m a citizen? Can’t it also safely be assumed that if I graduated from a residency program, I must have graduated from a medical school at some point? The website doesn’t tell you everything you need to send. After you’ve filled out the application online, there is a PDF you’re supposed to find somewhere. The PDF was the old application form. You’d fill it out by hand or by editing the PDF. If you did that, you’d see an number of appendices that told you what other documentation you were supposed to supply. But if you apply online, there’s nothing to let you know what you’re missing. So, you have to call them. When you do, t tell you that you need a bunch of stuff you’d never have guessed. a background check, forms you’re supposed to submit to your residency programs, etc. Why not put that in the online application? Then, after you do all that, you might wonder if your file is complete. So, you call. T’ll tell you that your application hasn’t been processed yet. How long till it gets processed? 3 to 4 weeks! So, t won’t even look at your file for 3 to 4 weeks. And, 3 to 4, of course, means 4. Then, when t look at your file, it might even be week 5 by the time t respond to you. At that point, t’ll tell your that your file is missing some stuff. You ask for clarification about the missing stuff, because you’re pretty sure you’ve already sent it. You hear nothing back for a week. You call them, only to hear that t thought t’d emailed you what you were supposed to fill out… You submit what t’re asking for, having wasted another week waiting. Then, t tell you that your file has been submitted for final approval. YAY! Then you’re told that, since you used to be a nurse, you should also submit a nursing license verification. Okay, no biggie, you think. You did a similar thing for Iowa a few years back. You’ll just go online and have the state of Michigan send the state of Tennessee some information about the nursing license that expired 6 years ago. You get on the Michigan website, and things are so disorganized that you can’t for the life of you figure out how to submit the verification request. Oh, and the process has changed. In 2015, you could use the Nursys verification site. But Michigan has pulled out of this process, because… just because. Now, you have to call during business hours, realize that you’re supposed to download and fill out a form, attach a money order (you can’t pay online anymore), and mail it to a P.O. Box. You do that, sending it by express mail. You call the next day to see if it’s been received. Now you’re told that if you want to send things by express mail, there’s another address you should have sent it to, an address that was never communicated to you when you talked to the Michigan people on the phone. You learn that sending mail to the P.O. Box means that it will sit there for a week, after which it will be processed by the Cashier’s office/Finance office/Treasury office, then slowly make its way to the Bureau of Licensing… this process might take 2 weeks. At this point, you’ve sent your initial application 8 weeks before. You wonder why it is that the process couldn’t be more streamlined. Why couldn’t t be a uniform process for all states? Why couldn’t t at least be a central database where healthcare providers could send their documentation, so that whenever t apply for licensing in a new state, that state can immediately receive all the relevant documentation. You’re powerless. You try to think of other things you might do. You remember that Iowa must have a copy of your nursing verification license. You wonder if you could talk to them and see if t’d share it with you. You’re told that t will emphatically not release the document to you. Why? Who knows. Anyway, t might consider releasing it to the Tennessee people if t are contacted directly by their Medical Board. You sheepishly ask the people in Tennessee if t’d be willing to contact Iowa, giving them a phone number, email, and fax number, knowing full well that it will be to no avail. You decide that maybe, if you were to track down the cashier’s office in Michigan, you could fly there and make the payment in person, in a bid to speed up the processing of your license verification request. It’s after hours now, so you can’t be sure. There’s a plane early in the morning. You could fly to Detroit, rent a car, drive to Lansing, and give it a shot. But… what if it doesn’t work? You decide to wait until the morning and call the office to see if getting there in person would make a difference. You are told that it is impossible to make a payment in person, because… rules. There’s literally not a damn thing you can do. And that, my friends, is the story of my life right now. The most frustrating part of this saga is that not only can I not work, but I’m sort of homeless right now. Let me explain. A while back, I bid on a house. I used what is called a physician loan. What my lender did not tell me is that you need an active medical license. So, we were a week from the closing date before I learned this. At this point, I had three options. Walk away from the home purchase and rent. This wouldn’t have been a terrible idea. Prolong my temporary lease at the place I was renting. I would not do this because I hated, hated, hated them with their nickle-and-diming tactics. Wait for my license. I opted for number 3, because I thought it couldn’t take much longer until I’d get my license. My belongings are currently in storage. I’m staying with my sister in Florida. It’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to anyone in human life, but it’s still really frustrating. The only bright spot is that I get to spend time with my family. I have a nephew and two nieces here that I hadn’t seen in 9 months. T’re growing so very fast. I am constantly peppering them with mental math questions, but t seem to love me for some reason. So, all in all, things could be worse.