ArticleHealth affairs scholar2026
Effects of the enhanced nurse licensure compact on interstate mobility and nursing employment.
Article in Health affairs scholar, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: The United States continues to face persistent nursing shortages, even as many licensed nurses are not employed in nursing roles. The enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC 2.0), a mutual licensure recognition agreement, is promoted as a strategy to increase workforce supply and flexibility, yet no prior research has assessed whether it helps licensed but nonpracticing nurses return to the profession. Methods: Using American Community Survey data (2010-2023) and state-level licensure and employment data (2015-2023), we evaluated whether NLC 2.0 adoption is associated with changes in interstate registered nurse (RN) inflows and in the license-employment mismatch-the share of active licenses not linked to payroll nursing employment-across 26 states. Results: We found no statistically significant effect on interstate migration (+0.27 percentage points; Conclusion: These findings suggest that while the compact does not draw nurses across state lines, it is associated with more licensed nurses working in nursing within adopting states. Licensure reform may therefore be one component of a broader strategy to support nurses' return to bedside roles.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.