FYI

I finally received my CA license. Total time: about 3 months, but it could have been closer to 2 months if a couple of forms were not missing.

L6 forms: It was quite easy getting the forms from the UK, they are very efficient there. The hardest part was St. Michael's, Newark, NJ! It was extremely hard getting in touch with that office over there (Medical Education) and they lost (?) my Priority Mail shipped form... This is what delayed my licensing. I had a few forms from St. Joseph's, Paterson, NJ; these were no problem at all either.

Primary Care requirement: I had not done this as a student. I used a letter from Residency (Pediatrics) with exact dates of Primary Care/Outpatient Care experience and that was accepted as satisfying the 4-week requirement. The letter can be brief, by your Chairman/Director saying for ex. "dates from xx to xx did Outpatient Clinic, dates xx to xx did Primary Care, etc. " You need to show that you did 4 weeks, at least, in a row. Not 2 days here, then 5 days later, etc. So, say you did a month of clinic (outpatient) peds, that is "outpatient care" for 4 weeks, etc.

Overall: Gather all forms yourself, and mail to the CA board with tracking/delivery confirmation. Start as early as possible, and mail in initial forms early, the application, the fingerprints, etc. It's a pain to do all that, but it is not too bad. Try to have everything in before they do their initial review, because if stuff is missing (as in my case), then they re-review 45 days later...

I need to give credit to SGUSOM and Bay Shore for helping me when I had problems with obtaining my L6 from from St. Michael's. I called them frustrated, spoke to a lady at the Registrar, explained my issue and she called St. Michaels', that same day, and helped me out. I even sent a letter to the Dean (clinical) about it, I felt they should know about it, and they called me back to make sure the matter was resolved.

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medic
Pediatric Pulmonology