Elizabeth Hovde of the Washington Policy Center states that multistate license holders not only increase access to care across state lines when necessary, they also maintain and augment patient safety
Elizabeth Hovde
Washington Policy Center
A House committee was scheduled to have a public hearing today (March 22), as it again considers allowing Washington state to join the multistate Nurse Licensure Compact. Doing so could benefit patient access to needed care, helping supply caregivers promptly in pandemic times and given our state’s nursing shortage. Additionally, joining the compact is a worker rights issue. Nurses should be able to take their skills from state to state with fewer unnecessary barriers.
Senate Bill 5499 passed in the Senate, while a compact-joining bill in the House did not. Hopefully, that does not spell doom for this second consideration of the good policy idea.
Opposition to the idea has been about safety and registration. Keeping track of nurses in our state can be handled and should not hold up our state from acquiring this needed workforce solution. And safety concerns are outdated.
Safety is prioritized in the compact. Nurses must comply with the practice laws of each state, compact states have the authority to take disciplinary action against violators, and a study comparing discipline rates of multistate-license holders to single-state license holders shows compact participation doesn’t pose an elevated risk to patient safety. From the study: “The overall discipline rates of nurses in NLC and non-NLC states were virtually identical (0.24% versus 0.23%). However, a further breakdown of the data revealed the annual discipline rate of nurses holding single-state licenses across both non-NLC and NLC states was between two to four times higher than the rate of multistate license holders.” Read the full study here.
Multistate license holders not only increase access to care across state lines when necessary, they also maintain and augment patient safety.
I wrote a white paper in the fall about the compact and the outdated arguments against it. Read it for more information, and hope the House makes progress on joining the Nurse Licensure Compact.
Elizabeth Hovde is a policy analyst and the director of the Centers for Health Care and Worker Rights at the Washington Policy Center. She is a Clark County resident.
Also read:
- Opinion: Washington state keeps making it harder for law enforcement to serve
Washington ranks last in the nation for police staffing — 1.37 officers per 1,000 residents vs. the national average of 2.31. - Opinion: The nation’s first pension raid is happening in Washington state
HB 2034 would strip billions from LEOFF 1 and redirect funds to unrelated state spending, setting a national precedent. - Opinion: I-5 Bridge replacement project – Tolls will cause massive traffic diversion to I-205
Stantec’s investment-grade study projects I-5 traffic dropping from 127,000 to 77,000 vehicles per day once tolls begin. - Letter: I-5 Bridge – Eliminate light rail, include two auxiliary lanes each way instead
IBR’s own data shows two auxiliary lanes outperform the recommended one-lane design on every congestion measure. - Opinion: Remembering the fallen through the symbol of the Red Poppy
American Legion Auxiliary Tum Tum Unit 168 hosts a National Poppy Day outreach in Yacolt on May 22.
