For three consecutive sessions, efforts to join a licensure compact for nurses have stalled. The holdup may lie in a standoff between unions and industry.
As of Jan. 1, 2024, there were more than 1,000 open registered nursing positions in Nevada hospitals. Those hospitals would need to hire thousands of nurses to reach the national average of nurse-to-patient ratios, and the problem will only get worse as the existing nursing workforce begins to age out and retire.
Despite that, state lawmakers this session again failed to move forward on a bill that proponents say could help address the problem by attracting more nurses — joining an interstate compact to allow nurses to practice across state lines with a single license.
SB34, brought on behalf of the state’s Patient Protection Commission, would have enacted the Nurse Licensure Compact along with a number of other licensing agreements for various professions, including physician assistants, audiology and speech language pathologists and physical therapists. For nurses, it proposed allowing Nevada to join an agreement giving nurses the ability to hold a license recognized by any of the 41 states and two territories within the compact — but the bill died without a hearing.