Oklahoma has about 4.1 million residents. Registered nurses average $85,060 a year, 43rd among the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Licensure
The Oklahoma Board of Nursing licenses registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and advanced practice registered nurses. Its office is on North Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City, telephone (405) 962-1800. Rules and applications are at oklahoma.gov/nursing.
Oklahoma implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact in 2019. A nurse living in Oklahoma holds one multistate license good in every other compact state, which covers all six of its neighbors: Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico.
Nurse practitioner practice
Oklahoma is in the restricted group. Nurse practitioners need a supervisory agreement with a physician in order to prescribe, and the state caps the number of nurse practitioners any one physician may supervise, which turns collaborating physicians into a scarce resource in the counties that have fewest of them. Bills to loosen the requirement have been introduced repeatedly without passing. See nurse practitioner practice authority and collaborative practice agreements.
Nursing education
The Fran and Earl Ziegler College of Nursing at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is the state's academic nursing school and teaches at sites beyond Oklahoma City. The Kramer School of Nursing at Oklahoma City University, Northeastern State University in Tahlequah and Oklahoma Baptist University carry further baccalaureate programs, with the community colleges supplying associate degree graduates. Several tribal nations fund nursing scholarships and partner with these programs directly.
Pay and workforce
Oklahoma City and Tulsa hold most of the hospital nursing work, with OU Health, Integris Health, Saint Francis Health System and Ascension St. John the largest employers.
Oklahoma also has one of the largest concentrations of tribal health care in the country. The Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation and other tribes run hospitals and clinics that employ a substantial number of nurses and, in parts of eastern and southern Oklahoma, are the main source of care. Because many of these are tribally operated rather than federal, they generally require an Oklahoma license, and they set their own pay and conditions. See Indian Health Service and tribal nursing.
The rest of the state is rural, and several small town hospitals have closed or cut inpatient services over the past decade. See critical access hospitals and rural and frontier nursing.
Related
- Indian Health Service and tribal nursing
- Nurse practitioner practice authority
- Collaborative practice agreements
- Nurse Licensure Compact
- 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.
- Oklahoma 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.