The Nursing Licensure Compact and Its Disciplinary Provisions: What Nurses Should Know

Abstract

This article examines the provisions of the Nursing Licensure Compact (NLC). Key provisions of this compact are reviewed with examples of how it has impacted individual nurses. The article begins by presenting the history of the NLC, followed by discussion about the effective and implementation dates and a review of key provisions of the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact. Specific examples of disciplinary actions and implications for nurses, employers, and educators are presented. The author concludes that most nurses provide competent care, and that outside of this compact, the few who violate laws and regulations are usually disciplined by their individual state board of nursing. Under the compact, however, those violations are addressed in all jurisdictions in which the nurse holds a nursing license or a privilege to practice, thereby ensuring public safety and preventing errant nurses from moving undetected from state to state.