Nurses are waiting months for licenses as hospital staffing shortages spread

[chare]

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Three hours spent on hold. That's how long Courtney Gramm waited one day, all so that she might get her license from the state of California to work as a nurse.

That morning was just a snapshot from a long ordeal. "Panicked, anxious, frustrated, mad even," Gramm describes how she felt as she called over and over. "I just couldn't get any information out of them."

Gramm waited seven months for her nurse practitioner license at a time when COVID-19 cases were skyrocketing across the U.S. and hospitals were desperate to keep nurses on staff.

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Nurses are waiting months for licenses as hospital staffing shortages spread

[Rita June Jarvis Isaac]

This problem is causing a real dampen on the enthusiasm of the new nurses, who are excited to start working. Is it just the process to become licensed that takes this long, and what is the wait time for other states? 

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

Most in Indiana know within a few days to 2 weeks. 

I applied for compact licensure (early November of '21) , I kept checking and checking, not posted. Told to check back after holidays. Called January of '22, someone had my file the day I originally submitted, she forgot to check the correct items to allow my request, she was new as it was explained. The lady that I talked to fixed it in 2 seconds and apologized. Thankfully, I wasn't waiting on mine for a job, I live near the borders of KY and OH, and one never knows when they may need to change jobs