The Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC) will be implemented January 19, 2018, changing the current list of states where nurses can practice across a state border. Here’s what you need to know.
Registered nurses and licensed practical nurses who held an original NLC multistate license prior to July 20, 2017 in a state that was grandfathered into the new eNLC will maintain the ability to practice in those states after January’s implementation date. This includes the new eNLC states of Wyoming, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Georgia and Florida. No new licensing action is required from you unless you move (your permanent or tax-home address) to another state.
Some states in the original NLC have not yet joined the eNLC. They may introduce legislation in 2018 to join the compact. Until then, the states of Colorado, New Mexico and Rhode Island will remain as the members maintaining the original NLC. Nurses who held an NLC multistate license in one of those three states will need to obtain a single state license from the state and also will not be able to practice in any non-NLC state without obtaining an individual state license or eNLC license. It’s also important to note that the NLC will continue existing until it has less than two states as members.
Nurses who obtained an original NLC license after July 20, 2017, and nurses in the five new states of the eNLC, will need to obtain a multistate license and meet the new uniform eNLC license requirements if they want multistate privileges. Information on the licensure process will be mailed to licensees by each eNLC state. Nurses who don’t meet the 11 requirements may still be eligible for licensure in a single state.
Stay up to date on the eNLC with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).