What compact privilege is
A multistate license from your primary state of residence carries compact privilege — the authority to practice in other compact states without licensing separately in each. It only exists between states that are live in the Nurse Licensure Compact.
Practicing in Louisiana on privilege
Because Louisiana participates, an active multistate license lets you work in Louisiana — common for travel nurses and telehealth. Privilege follows the patient’s location and your home-state license staying active and multistate.
The law that governs this in Louisiana
Working in Louisiana on another state’s license is practice in Louisiana, so it is Louisiana’s own nurse practice act that defines what you may do and the Louisiana State Board of Nursing that applies it. That act is Louisiana nursing licensure law (LSBN).
The compact itself is separate law. Louisiana adopted it at La. R.S. 37:1018 to 37:1020 (Title 37, ch. 11, pt. V) — Nurse Licensure Compact, which is what allows a multistate license issued elsewhere to reach Louisiana at all — the practice act still decides what you may do once it does.
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.
Confirm before you rely on it
License status changes and the compact evolves. Confirm your own license type on Nursys and check Louisiana’s current rules with the Louisiana State Board of Nursing. CompactStates.com is an independent guide, not a licensing authority.
Since when has a compact license worked in Louisiana?
Nurses holding another state’s multistate license have been able to practice in Louisiana since July 1, 2019. It has been a member long enough that most guidance you find will be accurate on this point.
Where a Louisiana multistate license reaches
If your Louisiana license is multistate — not every Louisiana license is — it carries privilege into these 39 jurisdictions, because each one currently issues and honours multistate licenses. It reaches nowhere else, and a non-compact state needs its own license by endorsement.
Two conditions sit underneath this list and neither is visible on it. Your primary state of residence must actually be Louisiana — privilege follows residence, not where the license was issued. And the license itself must be multistate rather than single-state, which is a fact about your record that only verification can settle.
Alabama · Arizona · Arkansas · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · Florida · Georgia · Idaho · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Maine · Maryland · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming