Missouri has about 6.3 million residents. Registered nurses average $85,900 a year, 41st among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Missouri State Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses and licensed practical nurses through the Division of Professional Registration. Its office is on Missouri Boulevard in Jefferson City, telephone (573) 751-0681. Rules and applications are at pr.mo.gov/nursing.
Missouri implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact in 2010. An eligible RN or LPN/VN whose primary state of residence is Missouri may obtain a multistate license. That license permits practice in other jurisdictions where the compact privilege is in effect, which covers seven of the eight states Missouri borders. Illinois is the exception, and it is the one that matters most, because metropolitan St. Louis crosses that line.
Nurse practitioner practice
Missouri is in the restricted group. A nurse practitioner works under a collaborative practice arrangement with a physician. Missouri also sets a limit on how far the collaborating physician's practice may be from the nurse practitioner's, which narrows the places a nurse practitioner can open a rural clinic and is one of the more restrictive provisions of its kind in the country. See nurse practitioner practice authority.
Nursing education
The Sinclair School of Nursing at the University of Missouri in Columbia is the flagship public program. The Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes-Jewish College and the Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing at Saint Louis University serve the St. Louis market, the University of Missouri-Kansas City serves the other end of the state, and the community colleges supply associate degree graduates across it.
Pay and workforce
Two metropolitan areas at opposite ends of the state take most of the work. St. Louis carries BJC HealthCare, SSM Health and Mercy, along with the Washington University and Saint Louis University medical schools. Kansas City carries Saint Luke's, the University of Kansas Health System's Missouri operations and Children's Mercy. Columbia holds the University of Missouri's academic hospital.
Both major metropolitan areas cross a state line, one into Illinois, which stays out of the compact, and one into Kansas, which does not. The Ozarks and the Bootheel are rural, served by critical access hospitals. See rural and frontier nursing.
Related
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Collaborative practice agreements
- Critical access hospitals
- Nursing by state
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, state population estimates for July 1, 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, registered nurses (29-1141), May 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Missouri State Board of Nursing, contact details and licensing information. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Nurse Licensure Compact, member states. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners, State Practice Environment. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Nurse Licensure Compact: eligibility and multistate privileges (accessed 2026-11-11).
- O*NET OnLine, registered nurse wage percentiles for Missouri, BLS May 2025 data (accessed 2026-11-11).