Health

Licensure Board Struggles With Licensing as USVI Continues to Face Nurse Shortages

The extended period of time it takes to license nurses in the U.S. Virgin Islands is dampening the efforts of the territory to respond to the healthcare needs of its people. Law makers on the Committee on Finance heard on Thursday that there is a “great need for LPNs to cover nursing homes” with little to no License Practical Nurses (LPN) available on the islands.  According to the Board of Nurse Licensure (BNL), 30 students graduated from the University of the Virgin Islands; 30 Nursing Assistants from Combined Nursing Assistant Programs and only three Practical Nurses from Raphael O. Wheatley Skill Center in 2022. For that same year, the Board of Nurse Licensure (BNL) said it issued a total of 49 initial licenses and completed a total of 800 Registered Nurses (RN) renewals. However, the contract it once had with the nurse testing center - Pearson VUE is null and void and conversations with Credentia — a new testing agency -— began in April but no agreement has yet been reached to...