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ST. PAUL — Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, sits down to talk about her support for putting Minnesota's nursing licensure program on par with most other U.S. states, allowing nurses to become eligible for a multistate license — with what's called a Nurse Licensure Compact — along with her other thoughts on patient care in the state.

Nelson represents part of Rochester and surrounding communities. She was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2002 before being elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2010.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Tell me about your support for the Nurse Licensure Compact.

The Nurse Licensure Compact has been implemented in 39 other states and of course all nurses have to have that same high-quality training. It's been highly successful. Actually, we allowed nurses from other states who have that high level of training to practice in our state during the pandemic (and) there were obviously no issues whatsoever. We need more nurses. Our nurses are integral to great patient care. And of course, we want to allow nurses from all aspects who want to practice in Minnesota, we should allow for that. The Nurse Licensure Compact is what nurses want — actually, 80% of the nurses support the Nurse Licensure Compact. It's unfortunate that we're kind of an outlier, truly, in how we're treating our nurses.

We've done the compact for physicians, why would we ... hold back our nurses? We've done a number of compacts that have been in a very mobile world, in a very competitive world and in a workforce crisis, we should be using all the tools that we have. The Nurse Licensure Compact is one of those that will help bring and allow more nurses to practice their skill in Minnesota. It'll be better for patients.

Do you have any thoughts on bills backed by the Minnesota Nursing Association regarding reporting requirements and hospital safety?

Quite frankly, we all want to keep all of our health care facilities open. I don't think anybody would ever be interested in seeing a hospital closure. Those are very painful and hard decisions. Of course, those are usually financial decisions, they just can't afford to stay open. I always kind of hesitate when we think that government is going to manage better. So I'm a little bit cautious — quite cautious, actually — about thinking that up here in St. Paul, we're going to manage better and tell hospitals what they can and cannot do, how they could stay open. ... There's one reason often that they have to close and that's because either there's not the patient census to keep those hospitals fully operating with the full staff that they need, or there's just not enough income to keep keep the place operating. Those are hard decisions, but I don't think they are going to be made any better by legislators in St. Paul.

No one would support violence in the hospitals. I have family members who have worked in hospitals as nurses and security guards who have faced that violence. So I know in a sense how devastating that can be. I don't know that St. Paul has the magic ticket. Certainly those who are in that situation, certainly have a better handle on that. I'd be very cautious. I just don't think the Legislature is the best manager. I don't think we should get into those managerial questions if it's a managerial issue. Are there things we can do to help keep our professional staff, our security staff, our nurses, how can we keep them safe? Obviously, we want to look at that. But I have more confidence in the people at home doing the job than I do in St. Paul legislators.

Can you talk about the possibility of the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act being re-introduced this session?

I kind of think it will. Our new majority leader (Sen. Erin Murphy) is the author of the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act. She was also, I think, the executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association. So I would not be surprised if it would be reintroduced. I'm really hopeful. I think everybody wants the same thing. Everybody wants to know that we have all the nurses we need, they're highly trained, they're in safe environments, and we are serving patients well. Everybody wants that.

I think if we can set aside the politics of that, we can get there. Perhaps this session we'll be able to look at how can Minnesota do that? How can we be part of the Nurse Licensure Compact? Thirty-nine other states are — deep blue, labor-supporting states are part of the Nurse Licensure Compact. I think Minnesota can be too. Hopefully, the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act, the Nurse Licensure Compact, perhaps we can really thoughtfully work towards what's best for patients.

You know, where I come from, the needs of the patient come first. That's top priority. That's what we really should be looking at. So hopefully, as these things move forward, we'll get to that point.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I think we just need to be careful about St. Paul legislating and micromanaging, so to speak. But I think the high-level points are, we all agree that the needs of the patient come first, we need excellent, excellent nurses. They are the glue that holds the whole medical entity together. So we need them and we need to make sure that we're not leaving people out, that we're not allowing people to come in. I do think that some of these managerial decision bills that you mentioned, I think are authored, if I'm not mistaken, from one of our senators who lives in an area that doesn't have health care but right across the river in another state is where those health care facilities are.

We want to keep our top world-leading health care entities here, serving patients and focusing on the needs of the patient first and all the innovations that we see every year, every day. We want to make sure that Minnesotans all have access to them.