UHart in the News: Nursing Students Featured in Gov. Lamont News Conference at UHart

The news conference was attended by all four local TV stations as well as other print and digital media. Lamont was joined by Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani and other healthcare officials.

In her introductory remarks, Edith Ouellet, executive director of the Department of Nursing, called the Multi-State Nurse Licensure Compact "a milestone for nursing in Connecticut." It allows nurses from 43 states and territories to practice under a single license.

"This legislation enables seamless interstate mobility for registered nurses, reducing costs and supporting innovative practices such as telehealth to meet both urgent and non-urgent healthcare needs," Ouellet said.

In his official release, Governor Lamont said, "Modern healthcare requires a mobile workforce, whether responding to provider shortages or assisting during disasters. The compact not only gives our Connecticut nurses the flexibility to respond to the needs of communities across the country, but it also helps us address our own nursing shortage by allowing qualified nurses from other states to practice here more easily."

Connecticut authorized nurses to join the compact effective October 1 of this year. Since then, Juthani said, more than 3,500 nurses have signed up. "That is a great thing for access in our state to jobs," she said. "This is showing us already right here and now how it is improving the ability for us to have people work in Connecticut and give flexibility, even for our new nurses who might be graduating from a program like this, to be able to enter the workforce."

One of those upcoming graduates is UHart nursing student Zera Fuller '26, who spoke at the news conference about the nurses she's learned from and been inspired by. "Learning about the nursing compact has made me realize how important it is that nurses have the ability to move around and go to different states to be able to help wherever they can when they can," Fuller said.