Licensure follows the patient
The location that matters for telehealth is generally the patient’s, not yours. Sitting in one state and caring for a patient in New Mexico generally means you need authority to practice in New Mexico — via compact privilege or a New Mexico license. See telehealth: patient in another state.
The law that governs this in New Mexico
Caring for a patient located in New Mexico is practice in New Mexico, so it is New Mexico’s own nurse practice act that defines what you may do and the New Mexico Board of Nursing that applies it. That act is NMSA 1978, ch. 61, art. 3 (Nursing Practice Act).
The compact itself is separate law. New Mexico adopted it at NMSA 1978 ch. 61, art. 3 (Nursing Practice Act) — Nurse Licensure Compact provisions; enacted by SB 186 (2003), which is what allows a multistate license issued elsewhere to reach New Mexico at all — the practice act still decides what you may do once it does.
Compact status is not the only consideration
Even where a multistate license reaches New Mexico, your employer and the New Mexico Board of Nursing may impose additional requirements, and some roles carry their own rules. Compact status answers one question — it is not a blanket authorization to practice remotely.
APRN telehealth is separate
The compact covers RN and LPN/LVN licenses only. If you work as an APRN, your advanced-practice authority is granted state by state and is not carried by a multistate RN license — a point that catches out a lot of remote NP roles.
Since when has a compact license worked in New Mexico?
Nurses holding another state’s multistate license have been able to practice in New Mexico 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 New Mexico: New Mexico folds the compact into the Nursing Practice Act itself rather than giving it a separate article, so there is no standalone compact citation to quote. The provision worth knowing is an affirmative duty almost no other state imposes: a nurse practicing in New Mexico on a multistate privilege who STOPS practicing here must notify the board in writing of the date they stop. Most compact law is silent on leaving. New Mexico also sets a six-month delay on any state’s withdrawal from the compact taking effect.