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 Ohio on privilege
Because Ohio participates, an active multistate license lets you work in Ohio — 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 Ohio
Working in Ohio on another state’s license is practice in Ohio, so it is Ohio’s own nurse practice act that defines what you may do and the Ohio Board of Nursing that applies it. That act is Ohio Rev. Code ch. 4723.
The compact itself is separate law. Ohio adopted it at Ohio Rev. Code § 4723.11, which is what allows a multistate license issued elsewhere to reach Ohio at all — the practice act still decides what you may do once it does.
Confirm before you rely on it
License status changes and the compact evolves. Confirm your own license type on Nursys and check Ohio’s current rules with the Ohio Board of Nursing. CompactStates.com is an independent guide, not a licensing authority.
Since when has a compact license worked in Ohio?
Nurses holding another state’s multistate license have been able to practice in Ohio since January 1, 2023. That is recent enough that employer handbooks, agency briefings, and articles written before then still describe Ohio as non-compact — so if you are told you need an Ohio license, check the date on the guidance.
Where a Ohio multistate license reaches
If your Ohio license is multistate — not every Ohio 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 Ohio — 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.
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