Alacarte

I’m a registered nurse of 14 years that holds licenses in my original state of licensure in Wisconsin as well as Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota and awaiting reciprocity from Massachusetts.

My goal with developing this app is to streamline the way we as a nursing community renew our license. As we all know; working during COVID-19 has been nothing short of taxing. Prior to some states implementing the temporary emergency licenses; there were millions of nurses that held and/or applied for multiple state licenses if their state was not part of the compact. Many of us will keep our permanent licenses but it is time consuming and exasperating to go to each states website, use multiple different usernames with different passwords just to renew our license  

Some of my licenses renew on even years, some on odd years, some in February and one in October.  There’s been many times I failed to renew my license on time due to a simple oversight. Having an expired license causes a delay in responding to possible job actions or crisis situations for that state; not to mention the financial burden of late fees in addition to the renewal fee of each license that we hold. 

Why should you invest?
Those who work in healthcare already experience emotional and physical hardships. Our time is always limited. Just to have one less stressor makes a world-of a difference and you can help with that!

Why are you creating this app?
This app is to alleviate the amount of time we spend on our continued requirements as well as the financial burden of late fees if your license lapses or expires. We have to do countless hours of continuing education requirements, recertification of basic, advanced and pediatric life support and so much more. Who doesn’t like a one stop shop?

How will the money be spent?
Developing an app costs anywhere from $10,000.00 to upwards of half a million depending on the complexities. Hourly rates can range from $40 - $140 dollars an hour. Surely expensive but the developers are worth every dollar! We would also be able to have a fully developed website and spread the news through advertisement. 

Why is the app development so expensive? 
From start to finish the developer designs, monitors, tests and analyze’s the mobile platform according to the need. Computer programming is intricate and if the script is incorrect, we fail to get our desired outcome. 

How will this work?
Much like Nursys®, which is a site that enables nurses around the US to send licensure verification to another state electronically; we would operate in a similar manner. The nurse uploads all of their licensure information and the app will take it from there.

Will there be interest from the Boards of Nursing (BON)? 
Absolutely! I don’t expect every state to participate; we see that as evidenced by certain states refusing to become part of a compact which would allow us to go anywhere and practice without filing for reciprocity. With that being said, out of the 50 states I’ve contacted; almost half are interested in participating. This is a win for them as well!

Melenie Turner, RN