Hawaiʻi - ANA opposes Hawaiʻi joining the Nurse Licensure Compact for RNs: seeking your comments.

Hawaiʻi-ANA speaks for the nurses of Hawaiʻi in opposing changes to our Nurse Practice Act in Hawaiʻi by our State Legislature, that would require the Hawaiʻi Board of Nursing to join the multi-state Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC).  Nurses in Hawaiʻi deserve actions by our state legislature to support nurses who live and work in Hawaiʻi, who strive every day to provide high quality, safe patient care in our communities. 

Joining the NLC would undermine Hawaiʻi nurses efforts by allowing nurses who have not met Hawaiʻi licensure requirements under our Nurse Practice Act to work alongside our local nurses, resulting in concerns over safe and effective nurse practice :

• loss of jurisdiction by our Hawaiʻi Board of Nursing (HBON) over nurses practicing in Hawaiʻi under multi-state licensure:  HBON would not know who is practicing nursing in Hawaiʻi
• nurses with disciplinary problems in other states working alongside us in Hawaiʻi 
• increasing barriers to swift and effective disciplinary action being taken by the HBON with nurses who practice unsafely and unprofessionally in Hawaiʻi

as well as disadvantaging local nurses by

• faster hiring of traveler nurses in Hawaiʻi d/t avoidance of Hawaiʻi licensing processes, which includes loss of licensing fee revenue
• lack of legislative attention to the actual causes of the critical nurse shortage in Hawaiʻi
• increasing the financial burden for local nurses d/t loss of license fee revenue for Hawaiʻi license applications and renewals in Hawaiʻi, that supports our local Hawaiʻi Board of Nursing and our Hawaiʻi State Center for Nursing (estimated loss will approach $1 million).

The Hawaiʻi State Legislature has called upon the Hawaiʻi State Center for Nursing to convene a work group to study and report back on the feasibility of this NLC for Hawaiʻi. Today, Monday July 10, 2023 is the first of 8 meetings scheduled with stakeholders specified by the legislature, to accomplish this task.  Hawaiʻi-ANA will attend these meetings and speak for the nurses of Hawaiʻi. 

For more information, see files linked below.  For questions and comments, contact Linda Beechinor, Executive Director of Hawaiʻi-ANA at executivedirector@hawaii-ana.org or text/call (808) 779-3001.  Feel free also to write your comments in this venue, if you have access.

HSCN Infographic of Information & Recommendations re: NLC

HSCN Information & Recommendations re: NLC - 17 page report

NCSBN Contract for Nurse Licensure Compact

Hawaiʻi State Senate Concurrent Resolution re: HSCN Report