Living in Kentucky, working in Arkansas
Can a Kentucky nurse work in Arkansas?
If your primary state of residence is Kentucky and you hold an active multistate license from Kentucky, you may generally practice in Arkansas under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Arkansas license.
Kentucky vs Arkansas at a glance
| Kentucky (home) | Arkansas (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | Kentucky board ↗ | Arkansas 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 Kentucky license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Arkansas-specific requirements with the Arkansas State 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 Arkansas’s current requirements with the Arkansas State Board of Nursing.
Where each license is actually checked
These two states do not verify the same way, and the difference matters at different moments: Kentucky is what you will be asked to produce, Arkansas is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
Kentucky
Kentucky Board of Nursing verification portal ↗The only state in this cohort whose portal lets you search by NCSBN ID as well as by name or license number. That matters for a common name: the NCSBN ID is the stable cross-state identifier, so it resolves the "is this the same nurse?" question that a name search cannot. Kentucky moved to the ORBS system in March 2023, so guidance describing an older portal is out of date.
Where you want to work
Arkansas
Arkansas State Board of Nursing license lookup ↗Both routes are primary source here — the board’s own 24-hour lookup, and Nursys, which holds data supplied directly by the board. Same dual-authority arrangement as Missouri. Arkansas also licenses a credential most states do not have: the psychiatric technician nurse, alongside RN, APRN, registered nurse practitioner and LPN. As with New Hampshire’s medication nursing assistants, that means Arkansas holds records for titles that simply do not exist elsewhere, so an unfamiliar title on a CV is not automatically a red flag.
How long each has been part of this
Both Kentucky and Arkansas began recognizing compact privilege in 2018. A pairing of two states that arrived together is the simplest case there is: neither has a transitional quirk the other lacks.
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
Kentucky
KRS 314.475 (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗Kentucky gives the compact its own titled section inside the nursing chapter rather than a separate act, and names the board’s executive director as the “head of the state licensing board” for compact purposes — so the person with compact authority is identified in statute rather than by internal delegation.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from KRS ch. 314 (Nursing); RN licensure at KRS 314.041, APRN at 314.042 ↗.
Where you want to work
Arkansas
Ark. Code Ann. §§ 17-87-601 to 17-87-604 (Nurse Practice Act, subch. 6 — Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗Read from the Arkansas Department of Health’s own compiled Nurse Practice Act, which is published split by subchapter — subchapter 6 IS the compact, and contains exactly these four sections. The board’s compact page is not the source: it describes the 1999 original and the 2017 replacement in prose and cites no code section at all. Arkansas ran the original compact from 2000 and adopted the enhanced one in 2017, so an Arkansas citation predating that changeover is describing superseded law.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Arkansas nursing licensure law (Arkansas State Board of Nursing) ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Arkansas'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.