Ohio has about 11.9 million residents. Registered nurses average $87,730 a year, 37th among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Ohio Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, advanced practice registered nurses and dialysis technicians. Its office is on East Main Street in Reynoldsburg, telephone (614) 466-3947. Rules, applications and license verification are at nursing.ohio.gov.
Ohio implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact in 2023, one of the more recent states to join. A nurse living in Ohio holds one multistate license good in every other compact state, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Indiana included. Michigan, Ohio's northern neighbor, is not a member.
Nurse practitioner practice
Ohio is in the reduced practice group. An advanced practice registered nurse holds a certificate to prescribe and has to maintain a standard care arrangement with a collaborating physician, which lays out how consultation and referral work. See nurse practitioner practice authority and collaborative practice agreements.
Nursing education
The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland is named for the Ohio congresswoman who wrote the 1943 law creating the Cadet Nurse Corps, the largest federal investment in nursing education the country has made. The Ohio State University College of Nursing and the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing are the other large research programs, with Kent State and Cleveland State carrying substantial baccalaureate capacity and the community colleges supplying associate degree graduates.
Pay and workforce
Ohio has an unusual number of large hospital systems for one state. The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals dominate the northeast, Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital the center, and UC Health and Cincinnati Children's the southwest, with ProMedica and Mercy Health covering the northwest and other regions. Nursing work is therefore less concentrated in a single metropolitan area than in most states of comparable size.
Appalachian southeastern Ohio is rural, served by smaller hospitals and critical access hospitals. The state was among the hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, which is visible in emergency, neonatal and behavioral health nursing throughout Ohio. See rural and frontier nursing.
Related
- The Cadet Nurse Corps
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Collaborative practice agreements
- 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.
- Ohio Board of Nursing, contact details and licensing information. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- Nurse Licensure Compact, member states and implementation dates. Accessed September 8, 2026.
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners, State Practice Environment. Accessed September 8, 2026.