Does an North Carolina RN license equal that of a California RN license?

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I live in Nc and plan on graduating school is may 08. problem is once my husband departs from the military we will be moving to california. my question is does my license transfer to california? i know i may have to pay a fee to practice in california, but does the program reqiurements in nc equal that in california? or would i have to take extra classes??? i really dont want to if i already have my license you know?

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Specializes in PICU, ICU, Transplant, Trauma, Surgical.

If you are asking if you will need to take boards again - no, THANK GOD! You will have to apply for a license the practice in CA as well. The only licenses that are good across the country are if you are a military nurse. If you are worried about it call CA's HHS :)

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

once you have an rn license in one state and you move to another state you apply for endorsement to get an rn license in the state that you have moved to. every state has a process for endorsing your rn license to that state. if you work for a federal facility (such as a va hospital or a military hospital) you can be licensed in any state and work at these facilities no matter what state they are in. that is a unique feature to working for a federal agency.

here is information on how to get endorsement to california:

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There are compact states. Maine and 20 or so other states have an agreement that your RN license you receive in your state is good in all of those states but I'm not sure what states are in the compact.

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There are compact states. Maine and 20 or so other states have an agreement that your RN license you receive in your state is good in all of those states but I'm not sure what states are in the compact.

Sorry, but this is not how the compact licenses work. If you live in a state that is part of that pact, then your license is valid in the other compact states. But if you move your legal residence from that state, then your license will only be valid for that one state and the compact part will fail to exist.

CA is not part of the compact pact, and they require a license issued from them to work there.

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