A few hopeful bills I follow are moving on in the Washington state legislative process, which just passed two bill-killing deadlines.
Among them, hope springs eternal for a bill that would allow Washington state to join the Nurse Licensure Compact. The multistate compact, which already has 37 states on board, allows qualified, licensed nurses to work across state lines without licensing barriers.
Imagine a driver’s license that only allowed you to motor within the state’s lines. That’s how it is for nursing careers. Until a nurse has a Washington-specific license in our state, that nurse can’t work here — and patients in need pay the price for unnecessary delays.
The COVID-19 pandemic and a current nursing shortage should be making it clear to lawmakers that our state needs this tool at its disposal. Licensed nurses who are military spouses in Washington state are some of the workers who have clamored for this legislation in the past to no avail. For some of them and their communities, the Legislature can’t pass Senate Bill 5499 fast enough. That a ban on out-of-state nurses exists at all, especially when licensure is comparable in other states, is a red flag that might indicate our state has some control issues.
Modern times, diseases that don’t stop at state lines, workforce needs and an aging society require new ways of doing caregiving business. Eliminating this licensing barrier makes sense. Joining the Nurse Licensure Compact sets us up better for future caregiving needs and offers nurses career mobility that makes sense.
Read more in my policy paper, “Joining 37 other states in the Nurse Licensure Compact is one of the ways to help Washington patients, nurses and hospitals,” here.
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Correction: A similar bill in the House (House Bill 1417) is no longer moving forward.
