State Senators Propose Bill To Streamline PA Nurse Licensure Process

HARRISBURG — Two state senators from southeastern Pennsylvania are looking to improve the system for nurse licensure in the commonwealth.

Sen. Maria Collett, a Democrat representing a district in Montgomery and Bucks Counties, and fellow Democratic Sen. Lisa Boscola, whose district includes parts of Lehigh and Northampton Counties, announced this week a measure designed to streamline the system for licensing new nurses in Pennsylvania.

The bill would amend Pennsylvania's Professional Nursing Law so that the State Board of Nursing would no longer have to review and approve applications before nursing students could take the state board nurse licensure exam.

Collett, herself a Registered Nurse by trade, said the measure is necessary since the current nurse licensure process is creating "unacceptable delays for graduates who are ready to take their exams and get to the bedside.

"With demand for health care workers continuing to outpace supply, we need to eliminate the bureaucratic barriers keeping nursing school graduates from joining the workforce," Collett said in a statement. "As a nurse, I've experienced this waiting game firsthand. Pennsylvania has some of the best nursing programs in the country, and we need to make sure the Commonwealth remains an attractive place for new nurses to practice."

The measure is companion legislation to House Bill 2590.

Boscola said that the current process is not working for students, and that she receives calls about the issue at her office "almost every day."

"Let's insert some commonsense, by passing this bill to remove the redundancy of it all," Boscola said in a statement. "Our nurses should be worrying less about the licensing process so they can get back to caring for the patients of this Commonwealth, at a time when we need them most."

According to the senators, nursing programs must be accredited by the commonwealth, and the administrators of the programs have to provide the State Board of Nursing with documentation for students who have completed the necessary nursing coursework.

The board's process of reviewing and verifying the completion of the state accredited program, however, is "redundant and unnecessary, and removing that step will free the state up to facilitate board exams and license processing in a timelier manner," reads a news release from Collet's office.

The companion legislation in the House — H.B. 2590 — was sponsored by Republican Rep. Dawn Keefer, who represents parts of York and Cumberland Counties.

Legislative records show that that measure awaits action in the House Professional Licensure Committee, to which it was referred last month.