Origins of the Nurse Licensure Compact
In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Telecommunications Act as a way to address to the rapidly increasing use of electronics in the healthcare industry. The Telecommunications Act allowed for the development of standards and a telecommunications infrastructure for the industry. The national nursing regulatory model in place at the time the law passed required a nurse to obtain a license in each state the nurse wished to practice. In addition to the obvious bureaucratic inadequacies of this model, most state boards at the time had no authority to take any action against a nurse’s license if a patient in their state was harmed by a nurse practicing remotely in another state.

In response to the Telecommunications Act, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) started a 3-year endeavor to develop a Multistate nursing licensure model that would remove regulatory barriers and increase access to safe nursing care in the United States. The RN and LPN/VN Nurse Licensure Compact was born on January 1, 2000, when it was passed into law by Maryland, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

Travel nurses should be aware of the benefits the compact offers them when it comes to traveling through compact states. A list of the 22 states currently participating in the compact can be found here.