At first, Reeny Pereira didn’t mind waiting.
The Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing told Pereira that it would take about 12 weeks for her to be authorized to work in the state. Pereira has worked long hours as a trauma nurse in Maryland and is ready to take a break. She just got married. She and her husband moved to eastern Pennsylvania. And they had a honeymoon booked in Jamaica.
Reeny Pereira has been a licensed nurse in Maryland for many years. But when she moved to Pennsylvania, that state wouldn’t recognize her degree. Pereira had to wait 5 months for a new Pennsylvania license.
Reeny Pereira
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Reeny Pereira
Reeny Pereira has been a licensed nurse in Maryland for many years. But when she moved to Pennsylvania, that state wouldn’t recognize her degree. Pereira had to wait 5 months for a new Pennsylvania license.
Reeny Pereira
When she went on a honeymoon in late August, the nursing team emailed her asking her to submit a copy of the Maryland state employment background check – and as a result, she would have to wait longer. 12 more weeks.
Pereira says she called the nursing board’s helpline countless times over the next two months. The average holding time is an hour or so.
In November, after another hour on hold, a call center employee told her she would have to wait another 12 weeks.
“That’s when I lost it,” Pereira said. “I asked if I could speak to a manager, and he said no. That’s when I hung up.”
Pereira did the only things she could do. She gave the Pennsylvania nurse licensing board a one-star online review. And she emailed the governor. Pereira recounts what she wrote:
“I understand that there is a shortage of personnel everywhere. The state needs me.”
In return, she received an automatic answer.
Many weeks passed. In January, her permit was finally granted – five months and three weeks after she applied.
Eventually, Pereira was allowed to work as a nurse in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania has one of the longest wait times
While she had to wait longer than some, her story is not unique. More than half of the 12,000 nurses licensed to work in Pennsylvania in 2021 waited three months or longer to receive them, according to an analysis of NPR data, according to an analysis of NPR data.
It’s one of the longest wait times in 32 states with data, NPR’s Austin Fast found in an investigation shows that licensure applications of newly graduated or transferred nurses are often wrapped in red tape for months, awaiting state approval to treat patients.
The delay comes over the course of a year when up to 1 in 4 nurse positions in Pennsylvania go unfilled, according to a survey from Pennsylvania Hospital and Health System Association.
Nurses and healthcare groups say the failure to promptly certify nurses has added to severe staffing shortages during some of the worst months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Betsy Snook, CEO of Pennsylvania State Nurses Association. “Now you can’t even work.
For Kelleigh Eckenrode, the wait wasn’t worth it.
Eckenrode is a registered nurse with 10 years of licensed experience in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California. Like Pereira, she is also licensed in Maryland – one of the states covered by an interstate agreement called Compact nurse license. Compact equipment that allows a nurse licensed in one state to work in other states is included in the compact unit.
Pennsylvania has joined the organization, but its membership is still inactive. So when Eckenrode decided to work there to be closer to her family, she had to apply for a permit.
Eckenrode, a nurse in the post-anesthesia care unit, applied in early August and was told to wait four to six weeks. After being unemployed for a month, Eckenrode took a temporary job in North Carolina, an NLC state.
Some nurses give up and take jobs in a different state
Four weeks later, she completed the mission and returned home. It’s been eight weeks since she applied for her Pennsylvania driver’s license.
Eventually, Eckenrode got tired of calling the state customer service line. She recently renewed her permit in California, so when she received a lucrative offer to work in San Francisco in early December, she decided to pack her bags.
About a week later, on December 15, Eckenrode’s Pennsylvania license was approved. It took 18 weeks.
“I just feel that it could be handled better,” Eckenrode said. “When I called, no one had a sense of urgency or really cared, which surprised me quite a bit to learn that we need nurses everywhere. It was just a bit of a letdown.”
Ellen Lyon, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees the State Board of Nursing, said the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the licensing system. She said Pennsylvania’s permit process is more transparent than most states, leading to longer wait times, and added that wait times have improved.
In addition, Lyon said, the department is barred from issuing exemptions that will keep temporary permits from expiring – as it did earlier during the pandemic – as the May 2021 voter referendum has limit the governor’s power to issue emergency orders. That effort, led by the state legislature controlled by the GOP, was seen by many as a rebuttal of Democratic Governor Tom Wolf’s public health measures during the pandemic.
In the end, patients feel the effects of late authorization, according to Janet Tomcavagedirector of nursing at Geisinger Health System.
“Delays in getting nurses to bed for patient care require our current staff to work significant overtime, resulting in burnout and loss of additional nurses,” said Tomcavage. ‘ said Tomcavage. “It also requires hospitals to hire more agency staff, which drives up healthcare costs, and in many cases closes hospital beds that can’t be staffed.”
