Living in Indiana, working in Ohio
Can an Indiana nurse work in Ohio?
If your primary state of residence is Indiana and you hold an active multistate license from Indiana, you may generally practice in Ohio under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Ohio license.
Indiana vs Ohio at a glance
| Indiana (home) | Ohio (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Indiana board ↗ | Ohio board ↗ |
Status shown as of 2026-06-17. Compact law changes — confirm anything that affects your license with the state board.
Recommended next step
Verify that your Indiana license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Ohio-specific requirements with the Ohio Board of Nursing.
Verify before you rely on this
Whether you can practice comes down to your actual license type, not just the two states’ status. Look your license up on Nursys to confirm it is single-state or multistate, then check Ohio’s current requirements with the Ohio Board of Nursing.
Indiana and Ohio share a border
Both are on the same side of the compact, so crossing this particular border does not change your licensure position the way it would at a compact seam. The usual cross-border questions still apply — where you actually reside, and which state each employer sits in.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Indiana is what you will be asked to produce, Ohio is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Indiana
Indiana PLA free search & verify ↗Indiana tiers this: the free search is updated in real time and is enough to confirm status, while a paid official verification returns additional fields in a printable format. For a credentialing file the paid version is usually what an auditor expects to see.
Where you want to work
Ohio
Ohio eLicense verification ↗eLicense is a shared system covering two dozen Ohio agencies, so the first step is selecting the Nursing Board — search without it and a nurse can appear to be missing when the search simply was not looking at nursing. Worth knowing for hospital credentialing: Ohio states that its online status information satisfies primary-source verification for the Joint Commission and NCQA, so the result can stand as the file copy rather than being a preliminary check you then have to repeat.
How long each has been part of this
Indiana has recognized compact privilege since July 1, 2020; Ohio since January 1, 2023 — a gap of about 3 years. That is worth knowing because the newer member is where employers, staffing agencies and HR systems are most likely to still be working from an out-of-date understanding of what a multistate license covers.
The law behind each side
Compact privilege is not a courtesy between states — it is each legislature having enacted the compact into its own code. These are the provisions that do it.
Your home state
Indiana
Ind. Code tit. 25, art. 42 (Interstate Nurse Licensure Compact); residence-change duties at IC 25-42-4-3 and 25-42-4-4 ↗Indiana is the clean structural opposite of Kentucky. Where Kentucky gives the compact one titled section inside the nursing chapter, Indiana gives it an entire separate article — art. 42 — sitting apart from art. 23, which holds the nurse practice act. So the nursing article is not where Indiana’s compact law lives, and a search confined to it finds nothing. The residence-change duties that catch nurses after a move are at IC 25-42-4-3 and 25-42-4-4.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Ind. Code tit. 25, art. 23 (Nurses) ↗.
Where you want to work
Ohio
Ohio Rev. Code § 4723.11 ↗Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Ohio Rev. Code ch. 4723 ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Ohio's practice requirements (for example, scope of practice and any continuing-education rules).
- APRN roles are generally not covered by the standard compact — APRNs usually need separate authorization in each state.
Frequently asked questions
Related pages
Sources & last reviewed
- NLC frequently asked questions— NCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)
Covers multistate licenses, primary state of residence, the 60-day rule, telehealth, and license type coverage.
- NLC member states map & status— NCSBN / NurseCompact (nursecompact.com)
Identifies full members, partial implementation (Guam), and enacted/awaiting implementation (Massachusetts, U.S. Virgin Islands).
- Nursys QuickConfirm license verification— NCSBN / Nursys (nursys.com)
Recommended destination to verify whether a license is single-state or multistate.
Facts on this page were last reviewed against official sources on 2026-06-17. Compact law changes — always verify with your state board of nursing.