Madalyn Mauro

“I’m all for the Nurse Licensure Compact.”

“When I was a new nursing grad from the University of Iowa, all my friends were getting compact licenses in state, which would allow them to work in all of the compact states.”

“I wanted to work in Illinois, which isn’t in the compact, so it was very limiting as far as future career options.”

“Getting the Illinois license took months because they aren’t in the compact. I had to drive five hours from Des Moines to Chicago just to get fingerprinted because they wouldn’t accept Iowa prints.”

“I started the process in October 2019, graduated in December and passed the NCLEX [nursing board exam] at the end of January and still didn’t get my Illinois license for another month.”

“When I called about it, they said there was some confusion with a document. I had to resubmit everything. That was a major headache. Plus, it was such a pain trying to get ahold of someone with the Illinois licensing department to identify the problem and figure out where to send the forms.”

“While I was going through the interview process with a couple of hospitals in Chicago, COVID hit and the hospitals put a hold on new hires. It put me in a tough situation. I needed a job, but I couldn’t transfer my license, so I had to get a new license just to get a job back in Iowa, which cost hundreds of dollars.”

“It was very frustrating but getting a license in Iowa was much easier because they are in the compact.”

“Being a nurse is a great career. Being part of the compact allows us to travel to other states without the headache of transferring our license. It’s one less thing to worry about, and it saves hundreds of dollars each time.”

Madalyn Mauro
Labor and delivery nurse, Northwest Community Hospital
Arlington Heights, Illinois