State Boards of Nursing
Before taking any travel nurse assignment, you are required to be licensed to practice in that state (unless otherwise stated by the licensing body of your specialty). To make that process easier we have provided links to each travel nurse state’s licensure information.
Compact States:
A nurse with a permanent residency in a NLC state has a multi-state nursing license and is eligible to work in other states that make up the “compact states.”
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana (Registered Nurse and Practical Nurse)
- Maine
- Maryland
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey (*New Jersey is allowing nurses who hold active, unencumbered, multi-state licenses issued by Nurse Licensure Compact member states to practice in New Jersey under their multi-state licenses.)
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- West Virginia (Registered Nurse and Practical Nurse)
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Current Walk Through States:
Walk through states allow a nurse to be issued a temporary state nursing license within one hour to one day’s time. This temporary travel nursing license is used to practice nursing while awaiting permanent licensure to be processed. The temporary licenses obtained in walk through states are usually valid for 30 days to six months, depending on the state issuing the license. The following states are considered walk through states:
- Arizona
- Hawaii
- Louisiana
- Missouri
- South Carolina