Nebraska has about 2.0 million residents. Registered nurses average $88,330 a year, 36th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
Nursing licenses in Nebraska come from the Division of Public Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, with the Board of Nursing advising on rules and discipline. The licensing office is on Centennial Mall South in Lincoln, telephone (402) 471-4376. Rules and applications are at dhhs.ne.gov.
Nebraska was among the first states to implement the Nurse Licensure Compact, in 2001. An eligible RN or LPN/VN whose primary state of residence is Nebraska may obtain a multistate license. That license permits practice in other jurisdictions where the compact privilege is in effect, which covers all six of its neighbors: Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota.
Nurse practitioner practice
Nebraska dropped its collaborative agreement requirement in 2015 and is now a full practice state. Nurse practitioners evaluate patients, order and interpret tests, and prescribe under the nursing board's authority once they have finished a transition to practice period. See nurse practitioner practice authority.
Nursing education
The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing runs divisions in Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney, Norfolk and Scottsbluff, a deliberate spread designed to train nurses in the towns that need them rather than only in the two cities. Creighton University, Nebraska Methodist College and Bryan College of Health Sciences in Lincoln carry further programs, and the community colleges supply associate degree and practical nurse graduates.
Pay and workforce
Omaha holds the largest share of the state's hospital nursing work, with Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center, CHI Health and Children's Nebraska among the biggest employers. The Omaha metropolitan area also reaches across into Iowa, and an active multistate license can cover the commute under the compact privilege. Lincoln forms a second market around Bryan Health.
West of those two cities Nebraska thins out quickly into ranching country served by critical access hospitals, and the Sandhills counties are among the least densely populated places in the United States, meeting the federal definition of frontier. See rural and frontier nursing.
Related
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Critical access hospitals
- Rural and frontier nursing
- 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.
- Nebraska nurse licensing, Department of Health and Human Services, 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 Nebraska, BLS May 2025 data (accessed 2026-11-11).