Michigan not on board yet!-----Minnesota's shortage of trained ICU nurses shows why we should join the national Nurse Licensure Compact - American Experiment

Minnesota's shortage of trained ICU nurses shows why we should join the national Nurse Licensure Compact - American Experiment

• A SHORTAGE OF ICU NURSES RATHER THAN OF ICU BEDS

Recently, I wrote about the alleged shortage of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in Minnesota.

...Indeed, it might be the case that it isn’t a shortage of facilities that is the problem but a shortage of people qualified to staff them. 

...This illustrates why Gov. Walz was correct to sign an order allowing healthcare workers licensed in other states to work in Minnesota, something we had previously called on him to do.

The Minnesota Hospital Association has long called for our state to join the national Nurse Licensure Compact. 

As the Minnesota Board of Nursing describes it:

The Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) allows a nurse (RN and LPN/VN) to have one compact license in the nurse’s primary state of residence (the home state) with authority to practice in person or via telehealth in other compact states (remote states). The nurse must follow the nurse practice act of each state. The mission of the Nurse Licensure Compact is: The Nurse Licensure Compact advances public protection and access to care through the mutual recognition of one state-based license that is enforced locally and recognized nationally. 

Currently 34 states are members of the compact.

Membership would improve our situation regarding qualified ICU nurses.

...The Minnesota Nurses Association opposes joining the scheme but, like any union, it exists primarily to look after the interests of its members, not those of the general public...

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