How to Check the Status of an RN License

In the United States, registered nurses are required to maintain their active license before practicing the nursing profession. Licensure is obtained through any professional nurses’ association, which is entrusted with maintaining oversight and control of the occupation.

Registered nurses are also dutifully required to adhere to their own state’s licensing requirements. Each state has different licensing requirements but majority requires a passing rate in NCLEX exam. If the potential registered nurse came from another country, some also require other materials to be submitted such as education/credentials evaluation, academic credentials together with certified translations, and CGFNS certification.

For a registered nurse, a license is very important. One of its critical roles is to protect or safeguard the public from those who claim to be RNs and perform false practice. A license status can either be active or expired. Only RNs who have completed CEU (continuing education units) can renew their licenses. Therefore, you would be assured that nurses with active licenses are currently up-to-date with their education and skills.  Checking whether the RN license is active or expired would also be beneficial for employers seeking to hire registered nurses.

So if you or any employer would like to check the status of an RN license, it can be done in two ways:

• Opening the website of the State Board of Nursing in a specific state. Online status verifications are commonly used nowadays. For example, for nurses in California, you can go to www.rn.ca.gov, then for New York nurses, you can visit www.op.nysed.gov.
• Another option is to open the secure online verification system called Nursys. In their website, nursys.com, you can obtain data from licensure systems of boards of nursing through secured, frequent updates. The report you can generate contain the name, license type, jurisdiction, license number, license status, expiration date, compact status (singlestate/multistate), discipline against PTP (privilege to practice), and discipline against license. As of the moment, only nursys.com can verify multistate licensee’s privilege status to practice in remote NLC (Nurse Licensure Compact) jurisdictions. When a registered nurse applies endorsement into a state, checking the RN license status is needed to verify previously held or existing licenses. Reports and status verifications today can be generated within minutes.