The Problem with Multiple Professional Licenses
Did you know that if you have professional licenses in more than one State and an action is taken against your license in one of the two, it is most likely that an action will be taken against your license in the other State as well?
Did you also know that if you have a license that is no longer active in another State, that State then can still take action against your license?
These are examples of what I call, “the domino effect.”
Are you wondering how these things can happen?
Well, with the inactive license, the Board may be concerned that should you try to reactivate it, there would be no way to know if there were any concerns about your license. Therefore, they still can take action even if your license is expired.
Most States have a statute that says if you have disciplinary action in one State and the State in which you hold another license has a similar statute, then action can be taken. Therefore, you could have actions in several States if you hold licenses in those States.
Since you can practice only in one State at a time, why waste your money to renew multiple licenses when you may never practice in that State again.
There is a website, www.nursys.com, which is a central repository for information on nurses. If you are licensed in multiple States, that database will show that you have active licenses in multiple States. If nursys.com picks up that you were disciplined in one State, it could report it to another State which then could take action against your license as well.
However, if you no longer have a license in that State, it is more likely that the discipline will not be forwarded to that State.
Also, if you have licenses in multiple States and have a discipline in one particular State, when you renew your license in any of the other States, you will have to disclose that discipline along with a reason why you had that discipline.
Therefore, you may be better off to not have multiple licenses in different States. It is one thing if you are a traveler or live on the border of two States to have multiple licenses but if you’re living in one State and content there, do you really need the other licenses?
So, be aware that you may be at risk if an action taken against your license, it starts the domino effect.
