Shapiro administration to allow nurses from more than 30 states to practice in PA

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration will soon allow nurses from more than 30 states to work in Pennsylvania without obtaining a state license, the Department of State announced Tuesday.

Currently, nurses who want to practice in Pennsylvania need to get licensed by the state’s Board of Nursing. That process can take months, leaving nurses unable to seek a job in the state at a time of a shortage of hospital nurses.

The Nurse Licensure Compact, or NLC, aims to address this situation by creating a standardized, multistate license. Nurses licensed in one compact state can work in the others.

Beginning Sept. 5, Pennsylvania will join the nearly 40 states and territories that allow registered nurses and licensed-practical nurses with a multistate license to provide inpatient care and tele-health services in their state.

Registered nurses, or RNs, are the largest group of nurses, and licensed-practical nurses, or LPNs, who provide basic care in nursing homes or hospitals.

“We are expanding opportunities for patients and providing hospitals and health systems with access to an approved, vetted group of licensed RNs and LPNs,” Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said in a statement.

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The NLC is an initiative of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the nonprofit that administers the exam that certifies registered nurses. Pennsylvania joined the initiative 2021, but is only now becoming an active member.

While nurses from other compact states will be able to work in Pennsylvania starting this fall, local nurses will not be able to work in other states, said Kalonji Johnson, deputy Secretary of State for regulatory programs. The state’s board of nursing needs to gain access to an FBI database to run criminal background checks before it can issue multistate licenses. There is no timeline for that process, he said.

The announcement drew praise from hospital industry groups, as well as unions representing nurses.

“Today’s announcement is an important step to bringing more nurses to the bedside to care for Pennsylvanians,” said Nicole Stallings, the president and CEO of The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, in a statement.

A 2022 survey by the hospital industry group found that a third of registered nurse positions in direct care are vacant.

In June, the state House of Representatives approved the Patient Safety Act, advancing in Pennsylvania staffing-level requirements for nurses in hospitals. Only a few states, including California and Oregon, have enacted similar laws. The bill has yet to advance in the state Senate, where its fate remains uncertain.

Nurses unions have been advocating for the legislation for years. Critics, including hospital industry groups, have argued that it is unrealistic to expect hospitals to meet these requirements when they are struggling to fill many positions.

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But opening Pennsylvania to nurses licensed in other compact states could help to address these concerns, said Linda Aiken, the director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania. That’s because it could create a larger pool of nurses for state hospitals to draw from, said Aiken, who has testified in support of the staffing requirements in a May committee hearing.

“Every hospital in the state has immediate access to a large supply of highly qualified and licensed nurses,” she said in an email.