Governor Tom Wolf signed into law legislation that improves nursing license requirements to support trained individuals who want to enter the nursing profession in Pennsylvania.

House Bill 889 will allow the State Board of Nursing to approve graduates of international professional nursing education programs to sit for the licensing exam, provided such programs are determined to be equivalent to that which is required in Pennsylvania.

Before this bill, the Professional Nursing Law allowed graduates of nursing programs in countries outside of the United States to sit for the exam, but only if they have first been licensed, registered or duly recognized in their home country.

PA’s previous law had required qualified students to return to the country where they obtained their degree in order to get a license or go to anther state in the U.S to get licensed. This bill removes that unnecessary impediment.

The new law is set to take effect in mid-August.