Living in North Dakota, working in Louisiana
Can a North Dakota nurse work in Louisiana?
If your primary state of residence is North Dakota and you hold an active multistate license from North Dakota, you may generally practice in Louisiana under compact privilege — without applying for a separate Louisiana license.
North Dakota vs Louisiana at a glance
| North Dakota (home) | Louisiana (work) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compact status | Compact | Compact |
| Multistate license for residents | Yes | Yes |
| Compact nurses can practice here | Yes | Yes |
| Board of nursing | North Dakota board ↗ | Louisiana 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 North Dakota license is multistate in Nursys, then review any Louisiana-specific requirements with the Louisiana 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 Louisiana’s current requirements with the Louisiana 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: North Dakota is what you will be asked to produce, Louisiana is what an employer there will run.
Your home state
North Dakota
North Dakota Board of Nursing license lookup ↗The strongest free lookup found so far: real-time against the board’s own database (not a nightly extract, so no Mississippi-style next-day gap), treated as primary source, and it shows discipline history inline with links to the public records rather than a bare flag. Paid extras sit above it — $35 for an official verification, $65 for a downloadable list of active LPNs, RNs and APRNs. Note that list refreshes monthly on the second business day, so it can be up to a month stale where the free lookup is current.
Where you want to work
Louisiana
Louisiana State Board of Nursing licensure verification ↗Louisiana states outright that some licenses are NOT available for public verification and must be requested by email. So a blank result here does not mean the nurse is unlicensed — the same trap as Washington’s temporary permits, arriving by a different route. Outbound verification to a non-Nursys state is a mailed form with a $25 money order specifically, which is worth knowing before someone tries to pay by card.
How long each has been part of this
North Dakota has recognized compact privilege since January 19, 2018; Louisiana since July 1, 2019 — a gap of about 1 year. 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
North Dakota
N.D. Cent. Code ch. 43-12.4 (Nurse Licensure Compact) ↗The compact sits in its own chapter, 43-12.4, next to but separate from the Nurse Practices Act at 43-12.1 — close enough in numbering to mis-cite, far enough apart in subject to matter. North Dakota joined the original compact on 1 January 2004 and moved to the enhanced one on 19 January 2018, and it legislated for the APRN compact in the same 2017 session. That makes it the fourth jurisdiction here, with Iowa, Idaho and Delaware, carrying APRN compact law on the books.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from NDCC 43-12.1 (Nurse Practices Act) ↗.
Where you want to work
Louisiana
La. R.S. 37:1018 to 37:1020 (Title 37, ch. 11, pt. V) — Nurse Licensure Compact ↗Cited to the Louisiana State Board of Nursing, which names its own governing statute as "Part V, Chapter 11 of Title 37, section 1018 through 1020". The legislature’s text is not directly addressable — legis.la.gov serves statutes by document ID issued from its own search rather than by section number — so this is the regulator’s statement of the citation rather than a reading of the enacted text. That is a weaker source than the Arizona or Wyoming records here and is marked as such deliberately.
Scope is set separately. What you may actually do here comes from Louisiana nursing licensure law (LSBN) ↗.
Things to keep in mind
- Compact privilege only applies if your license is multistate, not single-state. Check this in Nursys.
- You must meet Louisiana'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.