License verification · Nursing
Nurse License Lookup
Registered nurse, practical nurse and advanced practice licenses are issued by state boards of nursing. Most can be verified in one place, Nursys; the rest on the state board's own search.
Verify a nurse license step by step
- Search the nurse on Nursys QuickConfirm by name and state or license number. Note the license type (RN, LPN or APRN), status and expiration.
- Check whether the license is single-state or multistate. A multistate license under the Nurse Licensure Compact allows practice in other compact states.
- If the board does not report to Nursys, use the state board of nursing search. Several states run one search for all health professions: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, New York.
- For a nurse practitioner, also confirm national certification with the AANP Certification Board or ANCC, and the NPI in the NPI lookup.
- Read any public discipline on the license detail page, and search the HHS-OIG exclusion list.
Nurse practitioners registered in NPPES by state
NPPES records with a practice address in the state whose reported credential includes NP, FNP, APRN, ARNP, CRNP or DNP. Registered nurses rarely need an NPI, so the RN column is small and is not a count of licensed RNs.
| State | Nurse practitioner records | Records listing RN |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | 36,963 | 5,552 |
| California | 26,742 | 17,657 |
| Texas | 26,644 | 10,134 |
| New York | 21,912 | 22,443 |
| Pennsylvania | 15,068 | 5,165 |
| Georgia | 12,071 | 3,891 |
| North Carolina | 11,469 | 3,343 |
| Ohio | 10,816 | 11,126 |
| Illinois | 9,970 | 3,528 |
| Virginia | 8,841 | 2,232 |
Common questions
How do I verify a nurse license for free?
Use Nursys QuickConfirm from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, which covers RN and LPN licenses from participating boards, or the state board of nursing search. Both are free.
What is a multistate nurse license?
Under the Nurse Licensure Compact, a nurse whose primary state belongs to the compact can hold one multistate license that allows practice in other compact states. Nursys shows whether a license is multistate.
How do I verify a nurse practitioner?
Check the APRN license on Nursys or the state board of nursing, the national certification with the AANP Certification Board or ANCC, and the NPI in the NPPES registry.
Method and sources
Nurse practitioner counts are NPPES records as loaded on 2026-08-27, grouped by reported credential text. Verification steps follow the NCSBN (Nursys) and state board processes. PlainDoctor is not a primary-source verifier.
Nursys (NCSBN) · CMS NPPES NPI Registry · License lookup by state
Every figure on PlainDoctor is rendered directly from the federal CMS NPPES registry, Medicare Part D, MIPS, and Open Payments records, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-27.