Important Notice to Licensees and Nurse License Applicants: The New Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact is Coming

Within the next six months, the Compact Commission will determine the implementation date of the new Compact.  Once this date is reached, the State of Texas will change the manner in which it regulates the Multistate Licensure Privilege consistent with the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC) recently enacted and signed by Governor Abbott.   Although quite similar, the new eNLC was designed to effectively repeal and replace the existing Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), originally adopted in 1999.
If licensed in Texas, a nurse may practice nursing consistent with the scope and duties of that license in this State. However, the new eNLC will affect some nurses’ ability to utilize a multistate licensure privilege currently available under the old compact (NLC). This notice is posted to provide information concerning some of the most important changes.

The eNLC will supersede the NLC adopted in 1999. Although most of the prior NLC states have adopted the new eNLC, a nurse in Texas will not have a multistate licensure privilege in those states which have not yet enacted the eNLC. These states include: Colorado, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. These states may join the eNLC at some time in future.

A Texas licensee who holds an unencumbered multistate license will have an unencumbered multistate licensure privilege in all those states which have adopted the eNLC. Those states include:
Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

If you are a Texas licensee who was issued a single state license, or if you have any stipulation on your license which limits your practice to Texas only, you will not be eligible for a multistate license or a multistate licensure privilege.

An applicant for Texas licensure must meet all the Uniform Licensure Requirements (ULRs) in order to have a multistate licensure privilege. The ULRs may be found here:
https://www.ncsbn.org/eNLC-ULRs_082917-FINAL.pdf

The most significant effect relative to the ULRs is that any Texas applicant for licensure who has been convicted of a felony, or pled guilty to a felony, will not be eligible for a multistate license under the new Compact. If they are determined to be eligible for a license in Texas, they will receive a single state license to practice in Texas only. If a nurse wishes to practice in another compact state, that nurse will be required to apply to each state to determine whether they will be eligible for a single state license to practice there based on their felony history.
Any current licensee who receives a felony conviction, or pleads guilty to a felony after the effective date of the new compact, if still eligible to retain their license in Texas, will lose the multistate licensure privilege and retain only a single state license going forward. Further, any current Texas licensee who has a past felony conviction or pleads guilty to a felony prior to the effective date of the new compact, if eligible to retain their license in Texas, will be eligible to maintain a multistate licensure privilege under the new compact.

For more information on the new eNLC visit: 
https://www.ncsbn.org/enhanced-nlc-implementation.htm

updated 12/28/2017