What very well could be the first bill to pass in the next legislative session holds some mighty big stakes for Colorado’s more than 86,000 nurses who have licenses that allow them to work in more than two dozen other states.

A group of legislators were meeting with nurses at the state Capitol Thursday about a piece of legislation that must pass by Jan. 19, even though lawmakers don’t gavel in until Jan. 10. The first few days are usually about ceremonial events and getting settled in, but it’ll take at least three of those eight work days to pass the bill to put Colorado in a new multi-state nursing compact.

The proposed legislation likely will be carried by Sens. Jim Smallwood, R-Parker, Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, and Reps. Tracy Kraft Tharp, D-Arvada, and Hugh McKean, R-Loveland.

“This bill will ensure Coloradans have the nurses to help us get the healthcare we need,” Kraft-Tharp told Colorado Politics.

The state is facing a huge shortage of nurses, according to the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence.

The center reports that almost one-third of the state’s nurses are older than 55, and about 2,000 a year are expected to retire over the next decade.

With the state’s aging population, and its overall population growth, Colorado needs to be adding at least 3,300 nurses a year.

The Colorado State Board of Nursing has been in a 25-state Nurse Licensure Compact since the legislature approved the deal in 2006. The NLC has been around more than 17 years.

Now there’s a new enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact, and if Colorado doesn’t join it by Jan. 18, the state’s registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and vocational nurses will be able to work in only a handful of states, instead of the full 25.

Proponents say the new compact reduces regulations and costs for nurses, while preserving the ability of nurses to work across state lines, especially to respond quickly to natural disasters, as well as to do tele-nursing and education.

It also requires federal criminal background checks for any nurse who has a multi-state license.

Because of the existing compact, Colorado nurses also are licensed in Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Like Colorado, other remaining members of the old compact are Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. Without joining the new compact, Colorado nurses would only be able to practice in those still in the old one.

Nineteen Colorado organizations support the bill:

Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Nurses Association, Colorado Hospital Association, Fresenius Medical Care North America, Kaiser Permanente, Davita, Denver Health Medical Center, the Colorado Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the American College of Nurse Midwives, CO Affiliate, the Colorado Center for Nursing Excellence, the Colorado Association of School Nurses, COPIC, the University of Colorado College of Nursing, Public Health Nurses Association of Colorado, the University of Colorado, Centura Health, UCCS Bethel College of Nursing and the Colorado Health Care Association.