National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. 111 E. Wacker Drive, Suite 2900 Chicago, IL 60601-4277
Contact Information: Contact: Dawn M. Kappel Director of Marketing and Communications 312.525.3667 direct 312.279.1034 fax Email Contact
NCSBN Hosts Summit Funded by Federal Grant to Promote Nurse Licensure Portability
| Source: NCSBN
CHICAGO, IL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 18, 2006 --The National Council of State Boards of Nursing
(NCSBN®) (www.ncsbn.org) received a grant from the Health Resources and
Services Administration's Office for the Advancement of Telehealth to work
with state boards of nursing to reduce licensure barriers impacting
telehealth and interstate nursing practice. NCSBN kicked-off this
initiative with its member boards at a Licensure Portability Summit, held
Dec. 11, 2006, in Washington, D.C.
The Summit focused on providing state boards of nursing with information on
how to implement the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) and Criminal Background
Checks (CBC). Currently 23 states have passed the NLC law and 20 have
implemented the mutual recognition model for nurse licensure. The NLC is
modeled after the U.S. Drivers License Compact; it allows nurses who
legally reside in an NLC state and meet the uniform core requirements to
practice in other participating NLC states on the privilege to practice.
Additionally, NCSBN promotes the utilization of CBCs (especially FBI
fingerprint checks) as one of its Delegate Assembly adopted uniform core
requirements for state boards of nursing. In doing so, NCSBN is recognizing
that by assisting all states in implementing this activity, it will advance
licensure portability across the U.S.
Representatives from more than 25 boards of nursing that have not yet
adopted the NLC or CBC were invited to the grant-funded Summit to learn
about these important initiatives and how to reduce barriers to licensure
portability for nursing. The grant will focus on areas of study needed to
address licensure portability barriers for nurses, including the potential
start-up costs of adopting the NLC and CBC to a state board of nursing;
organizations who are not supportive of the NLC and their reasons why; and
potential policy models for making CBC portable for nurses from state to
state.
Speakers at the Summit included Dr. Dena Puskin, director for the Office
for the Advancement of Telehealth, and Robert Waters, a partner with
Gardner, Carton and Douglas and a noted telehealth and licensure
portability expert. These national experts provided insight into the issues
surrounding a lack of licensure portability for nurses in the U.S. and
spoke about key environmental trends related to telehealth and licensure
portability.
NCSBN President Faith Fields noted in her opening remarks at the Summit,
"In today's environment nurses have an expectation that their licensure
should be portable from state to state, and much like how the
Transportation Security Administration ensures that travelers are safe to
be flown to and from destinations, state boards of nursing have a
responsibility to protect the public through initiatives that allow for
better access to care and permit licensure portability that best protects
the citizens of their state."
The National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. (NCSBN) is a
not-for-profit organization whose membership comprises the boards of
nursing in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S.
territories.
Mission: The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), composed
of Member Boards, provides leadership to advance regulatory excellence for
public protection.
Inquiries about the Licensure Portability Grant or the NLC may be directed
to the Kristin Hellquist, NCSBN director of policy & government relations
at 312.525.3665 or khellquist@ncsbn.org.