Recent nursing school graduates get stuck in limbo waiting for licenses in Illinois

NEW LENOX, Ill. (CBS) -- From COVID-19 to the flu and RSV, the health care industry is strained.

Combine that with a critical shortage of health care workers – and we've learned it can take some nurses months to get their license here in Illinois.   

CBS 2's Sara Machi found some people Thursday who are just stuck in limbo.

When you finally land the job you want, it feels like you've passed a final hurdle. That was exactly what recent nursing school graduate Shamelva Diggs thought had happened.

But now, Diggs has been in a holding pattern for six weeks - unable to truly launch her new career because she is waiting on a licensing number from the state.

Diggs dug through numerous books – picking up the information she needed to nail her nursing boards.

"It is unlike any exam you have ever taken," she said.

The thought it was her last examination, until she found out the system would also test her patience.

"Three months is excessive," Diggs said. "I think there's something that should be done."

Diggs said she was told that it could take up to 12 weeks to get a license number - something she needs to take on her new role.

"If other states are able to populate license numbers literally as soon as pass results are entered into a computer, surely Illinois can figure out the infrastructure and the software and reformulate this program," Diggs said.

Diggs is able to work at the hospital - though in supervised role with a lower pay grade - beside the nurses who she says have big reactions when find out how long she has waited for a license.

"They are shocked," Diggs said. "They literally almost fall out of their seats."

And Diggs is not alone. After taking some time off to raise her kids, Dawn Hallo went searching for her old scrubs after finally reinstating her license

The process took her 10 weeks before she got the good news.

"I was so excited," Hallo said. "It was like a Christmas morning."

Hallo immediately printed her license – which she will take when she starts her new role as substitute school nurse on Jan. 10. But she can't understand why there was such a wait.

"It was definitely overkill, and it took too long to get," Hallo said. "Ten weeks to get a license when there is such an enormous shortage in nursing - and with my experience, I could've been used anywhere in the hospital, and any field to help out.

We reached out to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. They say in the past three years, they have doubled the number of processors – so as to cut the average wait time.

This is the full statement from the IDFPR:

"IDFPR is committed to ensuring competent professionals are licensed to provide services to the public. Since 2019 under the Pritzker Administration, IDFPR more than doubled the number of processors (from 20 to 45) in the Division of Professional Regulation to review license applications. Combined with the implementation of an online portal where individuals can apply for licenses, the average license processing time was reduced from 10 to 12 weeks, to a low of 4 to 5 weeks. Current processing time is around 6 to 8 weeks, which is the result of a 300% increase in applications, but IDFPR is hard at work to bring processing time back down to our previous low. The State of Illinois was highlighted in a March 2022 story by NPR as having licensing times for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses from other states – along with new nurse applications – that were better than the national median."

Hallo got her papers at 10 weeks. Diggs is already at six. Each of them is well past ready for their new careers.

"I think I might fall to the ground," Diggs said. "I don't drink, but I might need a shot."

We also reached out to the Illinois Nurses Association to see what they know about this issue. They say they have seen this lot with new nursing licenses, but they believe renewals are moving much more quickly.

All this comes as Illinois faces a worsening nursing shortage.

A 2020 report prepared from the Illinois Nursing Workforce Center found the state will face a shortage of nearly 15,000 RNs by 2025.

The same group found Illinois needs to replace about 98-hundred nurses annually to maintain current numbers but there are only 8,000 graduates entering the field each year.