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NURSING
SHORTAGE DURING COVID-19 ARGUES FOR MULTI-STATE LICENSES IN ILLINOIS
Illinois Policy Institute/
Patrick Andriesen
Multi-state nursing licenses would help
Illinois with long-term senior care, help nurses cross state lines to
fight a pandemic and help Illinois face a coming nursing shortage. |
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 Understaffing and overcrowding in Illinois nursing homes that
helped spread the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic has elder care advocates
demanding policy solutions from Springfield, with a new study outlining the
issues.
During the pandemic, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed multiple executive orders
allowing temporary nursing assistants to take on the duties of a certified
nursing assistant to address a growing shortage in senior care facilities. Elder
care advocates pointed to time-intensive Illinois licensing requirements and the
state’s overreliance on long-term care facilities for active elderly as major
contributors to the shortage and spread of the virus.
Illinois licensing requirements also impacted registered nurses and licensed
practical nurses during the pandemic, said Karen Messer, president and CEO of
elder care association LeadingAge Illinois.
“What we could have done in some of those peak moments of the pandemic, those
peak times where cases were exploding, we could have had nurses from other
states come in to alleviate some of the pressure. I think that that would have
been an enormous help for professional nurses as they struggled to meet the
needs,” Messer told NPR Illinois.
But Illinois faced a nursing shortage before COVID-19, with the bulk of both
LPNs and registered nurses over age 55 and heading toward retirement within five
years. Then the pandemic stressed health care workers, and started pushing them
out of the profession early.
One solution to the shortages is for state lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 2068,
sponsored by state Sen. Sarah Feigenholtz, D-Chicago. It would add Illinois to a
multistate Nurse Licensure Compact, allowing nurses and LPNs licensed in any of
the 34 participating states to practice in any other member state.
“The medical professional shortage here in Illinois is very obvious when you go
to work here,” said Majdi Razick, a veteran certified nursing assistant from
Chicago who is currently becoming a registered nurse. “When I have taken shifts
up during this pandemic, I will have 20 to 30 patients to care for. I have
patients that need to be seen at least once every two hours and others hourly.”
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Illinois is one of only a few states that requires
its own nursing license without offering reciprocity for licenses
from other states, creating a costly and time-intensive obstacle for
nurses. It also stops nurses from crossing state lines to get to
problem areas during a pandemic.
“The compact license could help afford me the opportunity to
contribute to fighting the pandemic and sharing my skills and
knowledge at other hospitals without the headache of obtaining new
licenses for every different state I travel to,” said Ali Conrad, a
registered nurse in Chicago who needed a new license to help with
the pandemic in California.
negative for Illinois. The state’s licensing
process not only makes it harder for nurses to come to Illinois, it
reduces the incentive for nurses to work in Illinois when they know
the license won’t transfer to other states.
“Getting the Illinois license took months because they aren’t in the
compact. I had to drive five hours from Des Moines to Chicago just
to get fingerprinted because they wouldn’t accept Iowa prints,” said
Madalyn Mauro, a labor and delivery nurse in Arlington Heights,
Illinois.
Licenses for both RNs and LPNs are covered by the Nurse Licensure
Compact, and the bill would add both types of licenses to the
compact. Illinois would still maintain its own nursing licenses and
recognize existing licenses but would add multi-state licensing and
recognize compact licenses if the bill passes.
The Illinois Senate has repeatedly pushed back the deadline for the
nursing bill to pass, with the current deadline May 21 ahead of the
General Assembly’s adjournment on May 31. That is a good sign, and
state lawmakers should grab the opportunity to address the health
care needs of an aging population.
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