I found the decision made by the Virginia Board of Nursing to disallow Excelsior graduates direct licensure within their home state to be very disheartening. Excelsior has served the nursing community within Virginia for a quarter century, by providing an opportunity for "seasoned LPN's" to upgrade their training, thereby EARNING an RN license. Many times these nursing professionals have simply passed the time in their lives when traditional education works, but I can tell you that having working with literally thousands of these dedicated professionals over the last 20 years, they overcome obstacles never faced by traditional nursing students.

The widespread acceptance of diploma RN's, whose success focuses primarilly on training on the floor, with little if any transferable college credit, is readily available in most if not all states. However, Virginia has decided not to recognize LPN's with not 3 years, but in some cases more than 15 - 20 years of nursing experience, PLUS a degree from a nationally recognized, accredited, NLN approved college (Excelsior) not worthy of a license in their state. 

I hope that this decision is politically driven as no other explanation seem to make sense.