Panel embraces nursing measure

The Legislative Council’s executive subcommittee Monday signed off on a proposed emergency rule to allow the state Board of Nursing to reissue a registered nurse temporary permit to licensed practical nurses near the end of further training.

During the state’s covid-19 public health emergency, the Board of Nursing issued the permits to licensed practical nurses who were in their final semester of a registered nurse educational program, board Director Sue Tedford said in a letter dated Wednesday to the Legislative Council co-chairmen, Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, and Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage.

“To date, 141 temporary permits have been issued and the majority of these nurses have secured an RN position in an acute-care facility,” she wrote.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson last week allowed the public health emergency declaration to expire.

The expiration caused the reinstatement of rules that the state Department of Health had suspended to speed the licensure of health care workers. The Board of Nursing is part of the department.

Health care facilities still face a severe shortage of providers, especially registered nurses, Tedford said.

“The cessation of the state of emergency removed these nurses from the RN role and placed them back in the LPN role, which has created staffing issues within the healthcare facilities,” she wrote.

Wardlaw said a few students were doing a superb job as registered nurses at the Bradley County hospital in his district, and they were downgraded to licensed practice nurses after the public health emergency ended. That stopped them from doing the work they did for the past two months.

“This is a very big need,” he said.