The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 3 182 standards. Common training standards across specialty areas through CACREP, which merged with the Council on Rehabilitation Education in 2017, promulgate widely used guidelines for counselor licensure (CACREP, 2017). There are various licensure portability models currently used in medical fields: (a) the nonprofit organization model, (b) the mutual recognition model, (c) the licensure language model, (d) the federal model, and (e) the national model (Bohecker & Eissenstat, 2019). In early efforts, Bloom et al. (1990) proposed model licensure language that could be used to establish national licensing standards, which was an effort toward portability under the licensure language model. AASCB previously tried to move toward a national portability system through the nonprofit organization model by establishing the National Credential Registry, which is a central repository for counselor education, supervision, exams, and other information relevant to state licensure (Bohecker & Eissenstat, 2019). However, recently the effort to establish a Counseling Compact for licensure portability under the mutual recognition model gained great momentum in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic (AASCB, 2022). Licensing Compacts in Medicine and Allied Professions The National Center for Interstate Compacts (NCIC) provides technical assistance in developing and establishing interstate compact agreements. According to NCIC, interstate compact agreements are legal agreements between governments of more than one state to address common issues or achieve common goals. Counseling is not the first health profession to pursue a licensing compact. Interstate compacts for medicine and allied professions have been established (Litwak & Mayer, 2021). Prior to current efforts for the Counseling Compact, similar legislation introduced compacts for physicians (Adashi et al., 2021), registered nurses (Evans, 2015), physical therapists (Adrian, 2017), psychologists (Goodstein, 2012), speech pathologists (Morgan et al., 2022), and emergency medical personnel (Manz, 2015). Other efforts to pass licensing compacts are underway for social workers (Apgar, 2022) and nurse practitioners (Evans, 2015). These compact models include multistate licensing (MSL) or privilege-to-practice (PTP) structures. A single multistate license obtained through the MSL model would allow a practitioner to practice equally in all member states, as opposed to the PTP model in which a practitioner would be licensed in their designated home state and then allowed specific privileges to use that license in other places (Counseling Compact, n.d.). MSL compacts include licensing effective in multiple states. The MSL model is used for the Nurse Licensure Compact (Interstate Commission of Nurse Licensure Compact Administrators, 2021; National Council of State Boards of Nursing, 2015). Nurses licensed within this compact system gain multistate licenses across all member states. The Nurse Licensure Compact legislation notes efforts to reduce redundancies in nursing licensure by using an MSL model. Draft legislation within the Nurse Licensure Compact MSL system defines a “multistate license” as a license awarded in a home state that also allows a nurse the ability to practice in all other member states under the said multistate license. This includes both in-person and remote practice. So, for example, a nurse in a compact state can be vetted and licensed through the central compact system, which allows traveling nurses to switch between placements rapidly without additional licensing required for compact states. On the other hand, non-compact states issue a “single state license” which does not allow practice across states. The PTP licensing model is used by physical therapy and EMS professionals. PTP establishes an agreement between member states to grant legal authorization to permit counselors to practice (NCIC, 2020). Unlike the MSL structure, counseling licensure is still maintained by a single state, or “home state,” but member states allow privileges to practice with clients located in other states as part of the compact agreement. This licensing model includes the definition of a “single state license,” which indicates that licenses issued by the state do not by default allow practice in any other states but the home state (Interstate Commission of Nurse Licensure Compact Administrators, 2021). Further, definitions include
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