The eNLC Compact Is a Game-Changer For Nurses and Staffing Firms

The eNLC Compact Is a Game-Changer For Nurses and Staffing FirmsThe eNLC Compact Is a Game-Changer For Nurses and Staffing FirmsThe eNLC Compact Is a Game-Changer For Nurses and Staffing Firms NelsonYouve got your hands full when it comes to recruiting nurses. The shortage is real. But a new law may reduce the pressure on your staffing firm especially when it comes to nurseswho move from state to state.The Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC), which went live in January 2018, enables nurses to provide care to patients in 31 compact states. To date 29 states have implemented the compact. (Kansas and Louisiana are still in process.) By eliminating the requirement to obtain additional licenses, nurses are able to more easily move from state to state.This sounds (and fruchtweinly is) ideal for nurses and beneficial for your travel nurse staffing firm, with fewer obstacles to placement. But as with most new initiatives, there are new challenges.Its important that your healthcare staffi ng firm understand what the eNLC doesand doesntdo. After all, your companys success (and reputation) hinges on meeting your clients needs for top-notch travel nurses.spoke with industry experts to learn more about what the eNLC means for staffing firms like yours.How the eNLC can benefit your staffing firmThe eNLC offers plenty of upsides for staffing firms added placement flexibility, reduced red tape and shorter lead times in compact states. A bigger pool of licensed candidates for jobs makes placement easier, easing shortage pressures, explains Jim Puente, director, Nurse Licensure Compact at the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).By removing the need to obtain licensure in compact states, nurses can be placed without being delayed by the license application process. If you have an urgent need to fill, you dont have weeks to wait for licenses to come through, explains Puente. In the past, in some cases, this would take up to 6 months.The new law is also good news for nurses, since it means they no longer have to hold multiple licenses. And that in turn may benefit you, since staffing firms sometimes pay for and facilitate these licenses.Now a caveat Nurses in those 19 non-compact stateswhich include biggies like California, Oregon, Nevada, Indiana, Minnesota, New Yorkmust still have a license in each state in which they plan to practice.Heres a complete map of compact vs. non-compact states. Puente recommends using the NCSBNs new Authorization to Practice map to confirm where your travel nurses are currently licensed. Visit nursys.com and enter the nurses name, license number or state nursing board ID number.An added need to vet candidatesNo staffing firm ever wants to wants to vet a nurse who later ends up in the headlines for gross misconduct. That makes understanding the context of this new legislation all the more important.The eNLC requires fingerprint-based federal criminal background checks, though its predecessor legislation, the Nu rse Licensing Compact (NLC), did not. Other states within the original compact did not require them, such as Colorado, Wisconsin, Maine and others.Nurses who were already in the compact before the enhanced legislation went into effect were grandfathered in. Technically, that means they can obtain a multi-state license without the background check, assuming their original license didnt require it.These nurses will later be required to obtain fingerprint-based federal criminal background checks when they renew their multi-state eNLC licenses. Yet in some cases, that requirement may be one to two years away, explains Jackie Russell, JD, RN, nursing practice and regulatory affairs specialist for the Minnesota Nurses Association.Discipline and enforcement also remain somewhat untested under the enhanced compact, says Russell. Although the eNLC contains provisions to improve discipline-related communications and enforcementsuch as for drug diversionbe aware if a compact state is slow to a ct or communicate. In such a scenario, a nurse could easily move on to another state and practice there while the investigation is ongoing.Will the eNLC make staffing firms obsolete?The enhanced compact means fewer hoops for nurses to jump through and more uniform license standards. Heres the big question Those improvements may make it a bit easier for nurses to get hired directly by healthcare providers and to cut out the middle manthat is, your staffing firm.Tech-savvy nurses feel more empowered and would be happy to beipass agencies, says Tim Teague, president of Blue Sky Medical Staffing Software.Better face this one head on, says Teague. Start planning now to not be the sole agent for nurses, but their conduit to deal directly with hospitals .What lies ahead with the compact? Based on its success, its likely that more states will join in the coming years. Its also likely that the eNLC will evolve over time. One thing is certain getting the attention of travel nurses will requir e a multi-solution recruiting strategy, one with a robust employer brand at its center. That message will help differentiate your staffing firms unique value to todays mobile nurses.