Nevada nursing, cosmetology boards already help military spouses

CARSON CITY – Qualified military spouses who move here from other states already are being given state nursing and cosmetologist licenses to work their trades in Nevada.

Debra Scott, executive director of the Board of Nursing, and Vince Jimno, executive director of the Board of Cosmetology, said Wednesday that their agencies comply with Gov. Brian Sandoval’s new executive order requiring state boards and commissions to give professional licenses to qualified spouses of military members who are transferred into Nevada.

“We have been doing this for at least 15 years,” said Scott, adding that more than 1,000 temporary licenses are granted every year for all licensed nurses, not just military spouses, moving to Nevada from other states.

She added there is a national database for licensed nurses, and nurses moving to Nevada pay a $100 fee and receive a temporary license. They are fingerprinted, and once results come back showing they don’t have criminal records, they receive permanent licenses.

Jimno said state cosmetologist licenses are given even to spouses of British, Canadian and Australian pilots who are assigned to Nellis Air Force Base to participate in Red Flag training, which often lasts a year.

The state has more than 23,000 licensed cosmetologists. If the training and examinations the cosmetologists received in other states or countries is similar to Nevada’s programs, then the state gives them licenses, Jimno said.

The test in Great Britain is the same as the national test Nevada cosmetologists must pass, he said.

“These are everyday kind of people who are transferred here: wives, daughters living at home who are trying to make a living,” Jimno said.

In response to a plea from first lady Michelle Obama to help military spouses, Sandoval signed an executive order Saturday to assist military spouses in finding work in Nevada.

Under the order, “every” state board and commission created under Nevada law is be required to give military spouses licenses “as long as the requirements” for licensing in their current states are “substantially equivalent” to Nevada requirements.

In his order, Sandoval said if executive directors or chairs of professional licensing boards believe laws now prohibit granting license reciprocity, then they must prepare in writing proposals to change laws to make it possible. In the meantime, they would have to grant provisional or temporary licenses to the military spouses.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.