NJ planing to join Mulitistate Licensure Compact for RN's

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

NJSNA : Rainer's Report

http://www.njsna.org

December 18, 2001

S-2208/A3302 Mulitistate Licensure Compact for Registered Nurses passed the Senate 35-0 on Monday, December 17, 2001. The amended version will now go back to the General Assembly for a vote where it had passed 77-0-0 on June 28, 2001. The Attorney General's Office had reviewed the bill and made suggested language changes which NJSNA supports. These changes in essence provide additional consumer protections by allowing the Governor of NJ to separate from the compact if a remote state's licensure requirements drop below NJ standards. In addition, the bill shall includes a sunset provision which will cause a review of the compact in 2007 if no legislation is passed sooner to drop this provision. Given that the bill passes the Assembly and is signed by the Governor before the end of this legislative session, the bill will take effect immediately.

Twelve states have entered into the compact. Delaware and Maryland are the closest geographically remote states. Pennsylvania and New York have no pending legislation. Several other states have legislation pending including Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nevada.

Detailed information about the Multistate Licensure Compact for Registered Nurses is available by clicking on Trenton Report below and via the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc website: http://www.ncsbn.org.

With the passage of the Mulitstate Licensure Compact bill and the bill that prohibits health care facilities from mandating nurses to work overtime, NJ Nurses have two bills awaiting the Governor's signature. This is a boost to professional nursing at a time when nurses continue to struggle to provide the best possible nursing services in often less than optimal work environments. NJSNA sincerely thanks the Legislature for their continued support of professional nursing.

For more information visit http://www.njleg.state.nj.us.

[Mijourney]

Hi Karen. With multistate licensure, do you see efforts being made to standardize nurse practice acts thereby forcing nursing schools to conform their curricula? Does this mean that all nurses will end up being in the National Practitioner Data Bank for all those authorized to see? Karen? Anyone else any opinions on the ramifications of multistate licensure?

[WashYaHands]

http://www.nursingworld.org/ojin/topic9/topic9_3.htm

Mijourney,

This is an old article, but I think it addresses some of the factors that you asked about.

Linda

[Mijourney]

Hi Wash. Thank you. I reviewed the article. Another question. Who lobbied the NCSBN for the multistate licensure compact? Who are the biggest backers or supporters of this? I didn't see it in the article. Correct me if I overlooked it.

[WashYaHands]

Hi Mijourney,

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing developed the model as a solution to the issue of interstate practice, which at the time this article was published was just emerging. The NCSBN is the body who is lobbying for it and support it. I do not have an opinion one way or the other on the issue, but the article does point out the many intracacies that need to be considered when implementing a compact for multistate licensure. Overall, I think that the article is addressing a National multistate licensure plan rather than a plan for regional compacts. As I said, I do not have a solid opinion, but after reading the article, it did enlighten me as to the barriers that could occur when implementing the model. Just food for thought. :)

Linda