Licensed in every state?

[Fedide]

I was reading a job description online (for a work at home patient education position) and it stated the candidate must obtain a license in every U.S. state, plus DC. It did state if you live in a compact state (I do), that you would only have to obtain a license in the non-compact states. (That is still over half the U.S.) I can't imagine the cost! Has anyone done this?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

i do not live in a compact state, and i have licenses in 8 states. you have to have your primary legal residence in a compact state to have a compact license, so even though i have licenses in a few compact states i don't have "a compact license." those eight cost me a pretty penny, but i do it for my business. when i worked for a company years ago, they paid for my license renewals in the states where i worked cases for them.

i would think that if a company requires you to have licenses for every state in the union, plus dc, then they would have to help pay for all of them, not to mention the add-ons: ny requires a course in abuse protection, a couple of states require you to get fingerprinted, most states have continuing ed requirements of varying amounts, some only accept ce from their own approved providers...it goes on and on.

are you sure they aren't just looking for nurses to work in every state, and require each nurse to be licensed in that one state where s/he works?

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

That is not a normal job requirement, they should pay the extra expense if that is what they want.

[Fedide]

It states the nurse must have a valid RN license in their home state, and obtain all others, including DC.

I don't know how someone would be able to keep up with all the different CE's, renewal dates, etc.

I should add their telephone nurse advice line positions state the nurse must hold a current license in their home state, and *may* have to obtain a license in up to 50 additional states/DC. I'm not sure why the difference, or what the legal requirements actually are.