We entered the second year of South Carolina’s two-year legislative session with renewed strength, focused purpose, and unwavering passion for the nurses and patients we serve across our state. The possibilities before us in 2026 are both meaningful and measurable, and the voice of nursing has never been more essential in shaping the future of healthcare in South Carolina.

Below is the 2025–2026 South Carolina Nurses Association (SCNA) Legislative Agenda, which continues to guide our advocacy throughout this legislative season. Our legislative priorities (SCNA, 2024), voted on during Membership Assembly, serve as the foundation for this work, while the annual agenda functions as a strategic action plan, allowing us to respond with clarity and intention to legislation introduced each year.

Full Practice Authority for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs)

Full Practice Authority (FPA) allows APRNs to practice to the full extent of their education, licensure, and certification under the authority of the state board of nursing. Currently, APRNs in South Carolina must maintain a collaborative agreement with a physician regardless of experience or clinical expertise. Many APRNs pay monthly fees for agreements that may provide little to no clinical oversight, and when a collaborating physician becomes unavailable, patient care can be delayed or suspended, limiting access and reducing patient choice.

Granting FPA would increase provider mobility, expand access to care in underserved communities, and strengthen healthcare delivery statewide. Patients across South Carolina would benefit from more timely, high-quality, and accessible care (AANP, 2024). When nurses at every level are empowered to practice to the full scope of their preparation, communities thrive and the profession grows in both impact and sustainability.

Protecting Nurses and Healthcare Providers from Workplace Violence

Workplace violence remains a critical issue in South Carolina and across the nation, disproportionately affecting nurses and nursing support personnel. In 2023, 47.7% of nurses and 20.1% of nursing support personnel experienced assault, with most incidents occurring in patient rooms (53.8%) and emergency departments (26.3%), and the majority of perpetrators being adult patients (South Carolina Workplace Violence Collaborative, 2023).

Healthcare organizations must maintain comprehensive prevention programs and zero-tolerance policies, but meaningful change also requires legislative action. Strengthening laws that protect healthcare workers and enforce penalties for assault is essential to ensuring safe environments where nurses can provide care without fear.

Nursing and Healthcare Workforce Development

A thriving nursing workforce requires sustained investment and strong public policy support. Workforce development strategies include reducing barriers to licensure, expanding tuition reimbursement and scholarships, supporting nurse faculty loan programs, and strengthening Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs, which fund education, recruitment, practice, and retention initiatives (AACN, 2024).

Strategic investment in the nursing pipeline is not optional; it is fundamental to the health of South Carolina’s communities and healthcare systems.

Sustaining the South Carolina BOLD Loan Repayment Program

An essential component of workforce development in South Carolina is the continued funding of the South Carolina BOLD (Better Outcomes, Less Debt) Loan Repayment Program. This program directly supports recruitment and retention of nursing faculty by reducing the financial burden associated with advanced nursing education.

Sustained investment in BOLD makes it more attainable for nurses to return to school, complete graduate education with less debt, and ultimately serve as faculty within our state’s nursing programs. Strengthening the nursing faculty pipeline is one of the most effective long-term strategies to address workforce shortages, expand student enrollment capacity, and ensure the future strength of South Carolina’s healthcare system.

Continued legislative commitment to BOLD funding represents a forward-thinking investment, one that benefits nurses, students, academic institutions, and the patients who rely on a well-prepared nursing workforce.

Access to Medical Cannabis

Patients deserve access to safe, evidence-informed treatment options under the guidance of authorized healthcare providers, including medical cannabis. Advancing access requires both thoughtful policy and cultural understanding. Even language matters: referring to this therapy by its scientific name, cannabis, helps move away from stigmatized terminology rooted in racist and classist history (Engvik, 2023).

Policy progress in this area represents compassion, science, and patient-centered care working together. As cannabis has been moved from a schedule I to a schedule III medication, we believe that there will be increased traction on moving this initiative forward this legislative session.

Removing Barriers to Health Insurance Coverage

Approximately 83,000 adults in South Carolina remain in the health insurance coverage gap—earning too much for Medicaid eligibility but too little to afford marketplace or private coverage. Many are working in essential industries, while others are students, caregivers, or individuals living with disabilities. Notably, 52% of those in the coverage gap are people of color, contributing to persistent health disparities (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2024).

Closing this gap would improve health outcomes, expand access to preventive and primary care, reduce uncompensated care costs, and help sustain rural hospitals, strengthening the entire healthcare ecosystem of our state.

The Power of Nursing Advocacy

The SCNA remains steadfast in its commitment to advancing safe, effective, and equitable healthcare by elevating nursing voices in policy and practice. Our legislative agenda serves as a roadmap, but true transformation happens when every nurse recognizes their power as a policy advocate.

Nurses are not only caregivers, but we are also educators, innovators, leaders, and trusted voices within every community. We are the drivers of healthcare, and meaningful change cannot occur without our engagement in the policymaking process.
The 2026 legislative session presents real opportunity. Together, through advocacy, collaboration, and courageous leadership, we can shape a healthier future for South Carolina.

Thank you for standing in this work.
Now, let’s advocate.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2024, October). Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Policy/Title-VIII-Fact-Sheet.pdf

American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). (2024, August). Issues at a glance: Full practice authority. https://www.aanp.org/advocacy/advocacy-resource/policy-briefs/issues-full-practice-brief

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2024). The Medicaid coverage gap in South Carolina. https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/4-3-24health-factsheet-sc.pdf

Engvik, K. (2023, October 9). Why call it cannabis? https://www.cannaspecialists.org/why_call_it_cannabis

South Carolina Nurses Association (SCNA). Legislative Priorities. https://www.scnurses.org/page/LegislativePrioritie

South Carolina Workplace Violence Collaborative. (2023). 2023 Data Report. https://indd.adobe.com/view/311acafd-3f90-4696-b8f8-68a3d5d23e33