North Carolina has about 11.2 million residents. Registered nurses average $90,470 a year, 33rd among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The North Carolina Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses and licensed practical nurses and approves advanced practice. Its office is on Lake Boone Trail in Raleigh, telephone (919) 782-3211. Rules, applications and license verification are at ncbon.com.
North Carolina was one of the first states to implement the Nurse Licensure Compact, in 2000. A nurse living in North Carolina holds one multistate license good in every other compact state, including all four of its neighbors.
Nursing history
North Carolina passed the first nurse registration law in the United States, in March 1903, setting up a state board to examine and register nurses. Several other states followed within months, and the model of a state board keeping a registry of qualified nurses spread across the country from there. It is where the term registered nurse comes from, and the North Carolina board is the oldest of the bodies described under nurse practice acts and boards of nursing. See also history of nursing.
Nurse practitioner practice
North Carolina is in the restricted group. Nurse practitioners are regulated jointly by the boards of nursing and medicine and work under a collaborative practice agreement with a supervising physician, with periodic meetings and chart review written into the arrangement. Legislation to move the state to full practice has been introduced in successive sessions without passing. See nurse practitioner practice authority.
Nursing education
The Duke University School of Nursing and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing are the state's leading research programs. East Carolina University's College of Nursing in Greenville trains a large share of the nurses who staff the east of the state, Winston-Salem State University and North Carolina A and T are long established historically Black programs, and the North Carolina Community College System supplies most associate degree graduates.
Pay and workforce
The Research Triangle holds the densest concentration of academic nursing work, with Duke University Hospital, UNC Medical Center and WakeMed. Charlotte is the largest single market, home to Atrium Health and Novant Health. Winston-Salem holds Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, and Greenville in the east holds ECU Health.
Eastern North Carolina and the mountain counties in the west are rural and served by smaller hospitals and critical access hospitals, a number of which have closed their obstetric units over the past decade. Hurricane season regularly forces coastal hospitals to evacuate or shelter in place. See rural and frontier nursing.
Related
- Nurse practice acts and boards of nursing
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- History of 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.
- North Carolina Board of Nursing, contact details, licensing information and board history. 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.