Nurses association urges action on workforce, workplace-violence and education bills
March 05, 2026 | Department of Public Health, Departments and Agencies, Organizations, Executive, Connecticut
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Kim Sandor, executive director of the Connecticut Nurses Association, told the Board of Examiners for Nursing on March 4 that the legislature needs to act to stabilize the nursing workforce and support education pipelines.
"This year is really bringing our frontline voices of our nurses to the forefront because we're hearing that their working environments and workplace culture and conditions are eroding their mental health, creating profound moral distress, and are just accelerating retention and transition out of the bedside," Sandor said during the board's regular meeting.
Sandor listed multiple priorities the association is tracking: two workplace-violence bills (cited during the presentation as 5003 and 5169) that would create pay parity in workers' compensation for nurses injured or taken off work by workplace violence; proposals to flag violent incidents in the statewide health-information exchange so providers know about prior assaults; measures to shore up Medicaid reimbursement for home care; higher-education loan-repayment proposals tied to CHESLA (Senate Bill 8 and Senate Bill 85 were described as creating a CHESLA graduate product and authorizing bond funding); and proposals to eliminate some licensure fees (bills cited as 37 and 82), which Sandor said could remove a $5 funding mechanism for certain programs.
Sandor also warned the board that the Nurse Licensure Compact implementation lacks sufficient data to measure success and is producing delays in converting licenses to the multistate license. "We don't know how many compact nurses are working in the state and if they're filling holes that we need," she said, adding that the association has formed an implementation work group and will continue to press for metrics and fixes.
Board members thanked Sandor for the overview and asked DPH licensing staff to report on average processing times for compact conversions at a later meeting. DPH licensing staff (Dana Dalton) acknowledged there can be individual delays and said she would collect data and return with numbers for the board.
Why it matters: Board members said bills on workplace violence, education financing and licensure implementation all affect clinical staffing, patient care and the board's licensing responsibilities. The association asked the board to stay informed and to collaborate with DPH as bills move through the legislature.
Next steps: DPH agreed to prepare information about compact-conversion timeframes for the board's next meeting.
"This year is really bringing our frontline voices of our nurses to the forefront because we're hearing that their working environments and workplace culture and conditions are eroding their mental health, creating profound moral distress, and are just accelerating retention and transition out of the bedside," Sandor said during the board's regular meeting.
Sandor listed multiple priorities the association is tracking: two workplace-violence bills (cited during the presentation as 5003 and 5169) that would create pay parity in workers' compensation for nurses injured or taken off work by workplace violence; proposals to flag violent incidents in the statewide health-information exchange so providers know about prior assaults; measures to shore up Medicaid reimbursement for home care; higher-education loan-repayment proposals tied to CHESLA (Senate Bill 8 and Senate Bill 85 were described as creating a CHESLA graduate product and authorizing bond funding); and proposals to eliminate some licensure fees (bills cited as 37 and 82), which Sandor said could remove a $5 funding mechanism for certain programs.
Sandor also warned the board that the Nurse Licensure Compact implementation lacks sufficient data to measure success and is producing delays in converting licenses to the multistate license. "We don't know how many compact nurses are working in the state and if they're filling holes that we need," she said, adding that the association has formed an implementation work group and will continue to press for metrics and fixes.
Board members thanked Sandor for the overview and asked DPH licensing staff to report on average processing times for compact conversions at a later meeting. DPH licensing staff (Dana Dalton) acknowledged there can be individual delays and said she would collect data and return with numbers for the board.
Why it matters: Board members said bills on workplace violence, education financing and licensure implementation all affect clinical staffing, patient care and the board's licensing responsibilities. The association asked the board to stay informed and to collaborate with DPH as bills move through the legislature.
Next steps: DPH agreed to prepare information about compact-conversion timeframes for the board's next meeting.
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