TravelNursingUSA

Travel Nurse Licensing

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Do I need a license to be a travel nurse?
Very commonly asked question… and the answer is a resounding “YES!”…..ah, but there’s more of course. It’s never that simple. There are basically two ways travel nurse licensing can be accomplished.

Nurse Licensing

Nurse Licensing

Travel Nurse Licensing by Endorsement and Compact License.

If you are a registered nurse licensed in one of the 50 US states you can apply to any other state for a “license by endorsement.” Simply put, the new state will issue you a license for their state once you pass a background check and all of your information is verified. Each state has its own set of requirements which you can find at the Board of Nursing website (more on that in a minute). It can take anywhere from 3 days to 3 months so this is something you will need to plan ahead on.

If you are lucky enough to be a resident of a state that is part of the Nursing Compact you might already be good to go. At the time of this writing, 25 states have enacted this legislation (with a couple more seriously looking at it). Here is how this works. If you live in and are licensed in one of these states than the other states all recognize your current license. You are free to work in any of those states without endorsing your license. Importantly, if you are a resident of a state that is NOT part of the Compact but have obtained an endorsement license in a Compact state it will NOT extend to the others.

To help you out I have created a FREE CHECKLIST of all 50 states with estimates of the time to get your license endorsed, the fees, which states are the Compact States and which have a temporary license. There are also website and telephone listings for each state’s Board of Nursing.

Click HERE

 

 

Illinois a Compact State?

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This week the Illinois Senate passed (overwhelmingly) a bill to join the Nursing Compact! 6763920_s

While not yet law (it now goes to the House for approval and then the governor must sign it), but the lack of opposition indicates it should be a smooth road to becoming law. I’m not sure how long this is going to take but hopefully sooner rather than later.

This will make it easy for other Compact nurses to work in Illinois which has had a fairly lengthy licensing process up to now. It will also open the door for Illinois nurses to easily take travel nursing assignments in the other 25 Compact states.

Travel Nurse Licensing

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What About Travel Nurse Licensing? Do I need a license in each state?

Yes! But do not let that slow you down. If you are a registered nurse licensed in any state in the US it will be fairly easy to get your license endorsed in another state. Note that I said fairly easy. There are caveats, of course, and you will need to plan accordingly. Don’t go wandering around the Internet and spot that fabulous sounding job in California Qualified Travel Nursing Candidatesand think you are going to be working there next week. You aren’t. California just happens to be one of those states that take a little bit longer to get your license endorsed. So you will need a travel nurse licensing plan and you will need to think forward.

What I try to do with my clients is map out the year in advance. It isn’t something they absolutely have to stick to but it helps to have a track to run on so there will be no surprises down the line.
Let me give you an example.
I recently had a young nurse from Wisconsin who wanted to start her travel nurse career. Hoping to escape the Wisconsin cold she told me she wanted to look into Florida as her first choice. Travel nurse licensing in Florida takes some time (3-4 weeks) so the first thing we did was have her start the licensing process online with Florida. We already knew there were a ton of jobs down there and she was quite flexible other than wanting to be “near the beach.” A week into the process she called and guess what? “My friend just ask me to be the Maid of Honor at her wedding in June!” OK. What does that have to do with me? “Do you think you could find me a job in Minneapolis?”
Well I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to get any warmer going to Minneapolis but she’s the boss and I was able to find her a nice job in a really wonderful facility. The only problem was she didn’t have a Minnesota license either. I got her online and being the organized nurse she is she had all of the required documents to them and they issued her a Minnesota Nursing License in 4 days! She was working a couple of weeks later.
Our plan for her is to try to get her an extension after the first assignment and negotiate some time time off for the wedding. During her stay in Minnesota we will apply for a California license a few months early because California is one of those states that takes time. When Summer rolls around and her second assignment in Minnesota is ending we’ll be scouring California for just the right spot for her, taking into account the job, where she wants to be and (importantly) the implications of housing costs there. Having a recruiter or Advocate who knows that sort of information can make or break a good assignment.
As an aside, this particular nurse is home based in Wisconsin which is a Compact state. That means she is already licensed in 25 states. That opens up a lot of possibilities for travel. Other states are known as “walk through” states. They have a streamlined temporary licensing agreement which speeds things up. These licensing times are a moving target and if you would like current estimates of a particular state you can email me at conrad@travelnursingusa.com. Just tell me what state is your home base license and what state you need travel nurse licensing information for. I’ll be happy to email it to you.
The bottom line? Travel nurse licensing is important, obviously, but don’t let the lack of a license in a particular state stop you. All it takes is a little bit of planning. You don’t have to take tests. It is really just paperwork for the most part.
And if Florida is on your horizon, rumor has it the legislature is seriously considering going the Compact. Knock on wood.

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