The intent of the Nursing Licensure Compact is to increase access to health care. Effective July 1, 2019, Kansas became a licensure compact state. The Nursing Licensure Compact is available to all RN and LPN licensed nurses and provides the ability to convert from a single-state license to a multi-state license.
Some things Medical Staff Professionals (MSPs) must remember and consider when credentialing nurses:
- Licenses are only changed to a multi-state license after completion of the Conversion Application.
- The multi-state license does not change the expiration date of the license.
- The same number of continuing nursing education hours is required to renew the multi-state application.
Interstate Commission of Nurse Licensure Compact Rules provides the definitions and rules of licensure.
Standards – The Nursing Licensure Compact (NLC) participating states have agreed to the following common standards:
- Graduation from a board-approved education program; or
- Graduation from an international education program (approved by the authorized accrediting body in the applicable country and verified by an independent credentials review agency);
- Successful completion of an English proficiency examination (applied to graduates of an internal education program not taught in English or if English is the not the individual’s native language);
- Successful completion of an NCLEX-RN or NCLEX-PN examination or predecessor exam;
- Eligible for or holds an active, unencumbered license (without active discipline);
- Submission to state and federal fingerprint-based criminal background checks;
- Free from state or federal felony conviction or found guilty, or has entered into an agreed disposition, of a felony offense under applicable state or federal criminal law;
- No misdemeanor convictions related to the practice of nursing;
- Is not currently a participant in an alternative program with requirement to disclose participation;
- Has a valid United States Social Security number.
As nurses transition from single-state license(s) to a multi-state license, this information will need to be updated in the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). For example, if an RN changes their license from a single state RN from Kansas to a multi-state license in Florida (where the nurse has declared Florida as the primary state of residency), the RN information will need to be changed in the NPDB (state license number).
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