Bill Text: HI SB280 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Registered Nurses; Foreign Graduates; Licensure Requirements

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-05-11 - Carried over to 2010 Regular Session. [SB280 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-SB280-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 329

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 280

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 280 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REGISTERED NURSES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to help alleviate the nursing shortage in the State by removing the requirement that an unlicensed foreign nursing school graduate applying for a registered nurse license in Hawaii must have the nurses' educational credentials evaluated by a professional evaluator.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by Healthcare School of Hawaii, the Filipino American Citizens League, Oahu Filipino Community Council, Filipino Coalition for Solidarity, Congress of Visayan Organizations, and Nursing Advocates & Mentors, Inc.  Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by the Board of Nursing, University of Hawaii System, University of Phoenix, and the Filipino Nurses Organization.  Comments on this measure were submitted by the Philippine Nurses Association of Hawaii.  Written testimony presented to your Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that the State's requirement for uniform evaluation by the recognized authority on credential evaluations, the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools International, is connected to federal immigration laws that require all international health professionals, except physicians, to be certified by the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools International or another independent, government-certified organization qualified to issue credentials.  Though your Committee is open to making the application process for foreign educated nurses less cumbersome, it believes that sufficient safeguards are necessary to ensure that foreign nursing school graduates are educationally qualified to apply for a registered nurse license in Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion on this matter.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 280, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 280, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair