Bill lowers training-hour threshold for nurse preceptor tax credit to help expand clinical placements

Delegate Robin Lewis presented House Bill 496, a narrowly targeted amendment to the nursing preceptor tax credit that would reduce the number of required clinical precepting hours from 100 to 90 per clinical rotation.

"Reducing that demand... makes it more attractive for experienced nursing professionals to become preceptors," Delegate Lewis said, framing the proposal as a modest, technical fix to increase the pipeline of trained nurses. Sponsor and supporters said the change aligns preceptor credit thresholds with typical clinical placement scheduling — for example, a 10-week rotation at one day per week roughly equals 90 hours — and would make partial placements more feasible for busy practices.

Nursing-education and professional witnesses supported the bill. Dr. Rachel Jordan, a family nurse practitioner and board member of the Maryland Board of Nursing, said the credit encourages volunteer preceptors and that lowering the threshold makes precepting more achievable for clinicians who can only offer limited time. Catherine Ling of the Maryland Nurses Association noted the hours required for students to graduate and the importance of distributed clinical placements across busy practices.

The sponsor noted a fiscal note newly posted showed modest costs (about $100,000 in fiscal 2026 and $200,000 in later years) and proposed a small fee increase for advanced practice nurse certificate renewals as an offset; the sponsor said the long-term workforce benefits justify consideration. The committee concluded the hearing with proponents urging a favorable report and no recorded vote in the hearing record.