Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC): Current List of States
What Nurses Need to Know
Updated January 2020
Travel nurses often work across
state lines, and the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC), coordinated by the National
Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), makes the process substantially
easier to work travel assignments in member states.
This is an excellent list of the states in the original NLC, but a new version of the compact, which has been ratified by NCSBN in 2015, has now been enacted.
The revised compact, called the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC), went into effect on July 20, 2017, when North Carolina became the 26th state to sign its provisions into law.
Even as more states
agree to the new provisions and join the eNLC, representatives from the
original states who make up the Interstate
Commission will oversee the compact’s
implementation in the coming months. The commission members set Friday, January 19, 2018, as the official implementation date for the enhanced
NLC.
If you have any questions about the enhanced NLC, compact nursing licenses, or how to get your nursing license in a non-compact state, contact the recruiters and licensing experts with our partner travel nursing agencies.
Which states are part of the enhanced NLC?
Here is the current list of states
that have enacted the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact:
• Alabama
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Florida
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky (joining in July 2019)
• Louisiana (joining in July 2019)
• Maine
• Maryland
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming
What is the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact?
Allowing nurses to have mobility across state borders, the enhanced NLC increases access to care while maintaining public protection. The enhanced NLC, or eNLC, which is an updated version of the current Nurse Licensure Compact, allows for registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPN/VNs) to have one multistate license, with the ability to practice in both their home state and other eNLC states.
All states, including those participating in the existing NLC, must introduce legislation in the coming years to enter into the eNLC.
Patient safety concerns have led to the addition of new features in the provisions of the legislation of the enhanced NLC. Licensing standards are aligned in enhanced NLC states so all applicants for a multistate nursing license are required to meet the same standards, which include a federal and state criminal background check that will be conducted for all applicants applying for multistate licensure.
To learn more about the implementation of the enhanced NLC, visit the NCSBN FAQs.