Nevada has about 3.3 million residents, most of them in one metropolitan area. Registered nurses average $105,710 a year, tenth among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Nevada State Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and advanced practice registered nurses. Its office is on Plumas Street in Reno, telephone (888) 590-6726. Rules, applications and license verification are at nevadanursingboard.org.
Nevada is not in the Nurse Licensure Compact, though a bill has been before the legislature. A multistate license from another state carries no authority here, so nurses need a Nevada license obtained by endorsement. Among Nevada's neighbors, Arizona, Utah and Idaho are compact members; California and Oregon are not.
That combination is expensive for the state. Nevada leans on travel nursing and staffing agencies more than most, and every one of those contracts carries a licensing delay that a compact state would not impose.
Nurse practitioner practice
Nevada is a full practice state. Nurse practitioners evaluate patients, order and interpret tests, and prescribe under the nursing board's authority, and they may own and run independent practices. See nurse practitioner practice authority.
Nursing education
The Orvis School of Nursing at the University of Nevada, Reno and the School of Nursing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas are the state's university programs, with Nevada State University in Henderson and the College of Southern Nevada and Truckee Meadows Community College supplying much of the rest.
Nevada produces fewer nursing graduates per resident than most states, which is the root of the shortage rather than a symptom of it. Expanding the programs runs into the same obstacle it does everywhere, which is finding instructors willing to take an academic salary. See the nurse faculty shortage.
Pay and workforce
Roughly three quarters of Nevada's population lives in Clark County, and the Las Vegas hospital systems employ most of the state's nurses. Valley Health System, Sunrise Hospital, University Medical Center of Southern Nevada and St. Rose Dominican are among them. Reno and Sparks form the second market, anchored by Renown Health.
Nevada has long ranked near the bottom of the country in nurses per resident, so even with high wages the state runs persistent vacancies. See the nursing shortage. A visitor population far larger than the resident one adds emergency and urgent care volume that the population figures never show, and the rural counties in the north and east are frontier country served by critical access hospitals. See rural and frontier nursing.
Related
- Licensure by endorsement
- The nurse faculty shortage
- Nurse staffing agencies
- The nursing shortage
- 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.
- Nevada 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.