HJBR May/Jun 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  MAY / JUN 2022 51 Karen C. Lyon, PhD, MBA, APRN-CNS, NEA Chief Executive Officer Louisiana State Board of Nursing risdictions. Currently, 15,421 of the 63,678 active Louisiana RN licensees hold mul- tistate licenses. The state did not require RNs holding a single state license on July 1, 2019, to convert their license to multi- state status, which explains the difference in the two numbers. The use of technology for increased consulting, education, and service across state borders requires that we remain cognizant of challenges to safe and equitable patient care and provide solutions within and across jurisdictional boundaries. (*New graduates and nurses endorsing into Louisiana must meet all uniform li- censure requirements under the NLC stat- ute.) 3. Strengthen the capacity, capability, and diversity of regulatory leadership and its engagement. The ability of NCSBN and LSBN to achieve their mission for public protection is directly proportional to active engage- ment by our members, constituents, and government leaders. We are committed to developing services that support nurs- ing regulation and facilitate sharing best practices, developing talent, and diffusing expertise within our profession. To that end, we continue to collaborate with nurs- ing organizations outside of regulation to leverage our role among interdependent systems in education and practice that collectively secure public safety and mini- mize barriers to change. To that end, LSBN is currently working with partners in aca- demia and practice to decrease workplace violence, transform nursing education toward competency-based curricula, and increase workforce development. 4. Pioneer competency assessments to support the future of healthcare and the advancement of regulatory excellence. NCSBN currently provides state-of- the-art competency assessments that are statistically valid and reliable, secure, and legally defensible. The NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-LPN examinations maintain the industry benchmark for consistency and value. In April 2023, NCSBN will launch an enhanced precision next generation measurement exam. Additionally, lessons learned from maintaining licensure exam delivery during COVID-19 have under- scored the need for optimizing approval processes and delivery of the NCLEX us- ing technology. Finally, the measurement of competency across a career needs to evolve to ensure a workforce fit to practice in the future. Another area where LSBN hopes to collaborate with NCSBN is on the annual report project. Currently, all nursing edu- cation programs in the state of Louisiana who prepare pre-licensure students for entry into practice or graduate students in one of the four advanced practice reg- istered nurse (APRN) roles must submit an annual report of education outcomes. The NCSBN project is the first national educa- tion database to be developed for regula- tory agencies. Currently, information from 25 participating jurisdictions is being used to benchmark individual program metrics against peer institutions to make improve- ments and changes. Feedback from these jurisdictions includes: • An 80% decrease in work on annual reports by participating jurisdictions. • An immediate ability to supply nurs- ing program enrollment data to legis- lators and governors. • Summaries of programs that do not meet quality indicators have been in- valuable in interventions to improve those programs before discipline is taken against them. Finally, building on the landmark 2020 study, which enrolled over 7,000 nurses in monitoring programs, NCSBN will test evidence-based guidelines for return- ing nurses to safe practice. LSBN and its award-winning Recovering Nurse Pro- gram (RNP) plans to participate in this 5-year longitudinal research study that will test the effect of these guidelines on returning nurses enrolled in alternative to discipline programs, such as RNP, back to safe practice. Over the next 12 months, LSBN’s work will be related to supporting full practice authority, collaborating with our stake- holders to develop the future nursing workforce, supporting the transition to practice for our new nurses, and respond- ing to the changing practice and learning environments. To accomplish these objec- tives, we will need the support of our nurs- es. We look forward to engaging with each of you as we work to keep our profession advancing. n