What decides whether you need a new license
Two things: whether Delaware is a compact state, and whether your own license is multistate rather than single-state. Compact privilege only exists between compact states, and only a multistate license carries it. Run your exact home/assignment pairing through the compact state checker.
Practicing in Delaware on assignment
Working under privilege still means following Delaware's scope of practice and nurse practice act, and you remain accountable to the Delaware Board of Nursing while you are here. If any of the assignment is telehealth, remember licensure generally follows the patient’s location — see the Delaware telehealth guide.
The law that governs this in Delaware
Taking an assignment in Delaware is practice in Delaware, so it is Delaware’s own nurse practice act that defines what you may do and the Delaware Board of Nursing that applies it. That act is 24 Del. C. ch. 19 (Board of Nursing).
The compact itself is separate law. Delaware adopted it at Del. Code tit. 24, ch. 19A (Nurse Multistate Licensure Compact), which is what allows a multistate license issued elsewhere to reach Delaware at all — the practice act still decides what you may do once it does.
Before you sign
We are an independent licensing reference — we do not list assignments, agencies, or pay rates, and nothing here is a job offer. For the wider pre-assignment checklist (contract terms, credentialing, housing), see what to check before accepting a travel assignment. Confirm licensure with the Delaware Board of Nursing.
Since when has a compact license worked in Delaware?
Nurses holding another state’s multistate license have been able to practice in Delaware since January 19, 2018. It has been a member long enough that most guidance you find will be accurate on this point.
The compact statute in Delaware: Delaware keeps the compact out of the nursing chapter entirely: ch. 19 is Nursing, ch. 19A is the Nurse Multistate Licensure Compact, and ch. 19B is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Compact. The APRN chapter is worth reading carefully — its heading in the code is qualified “[Effective upon …]”, so Delaware has enacted APRN compact law that is contingent rather than in force. That is primary-source confirmation of the general point: a state having APRN compact language on its books does not mean an APRN multistate license exists there.