Nurse state crossing · Massachusetts licensing · NLC status table · RN list
LPN/LVN work list: Massachusetts
What an LPN/LVN has to do to work in Massachusetts. Pick where you live and the page shows your route.
Massachusetts has enacted the compact but it is not in effect yet, so a multistate licence does not cover work here. You need a Massachusetts licence; the steps are below.
Massachusetts: Compact enacted, not yet in effect
NCSBN · nursecompact.com · checked 15 Oct 2026
Home and work in Massachusetts
If you already hold a licence Massachusetts issued, there is no state line to cross. Renewal and continuing-education rules are on the Massachusetts licensing page.
Moved here from another state? Massachusetts does not honour multistate licences yet, so you need a Massachusetts licence to work here. The endorsement steps are below.
NCSBN · nursecompact.com · checked 15 Oct 2026
Route B: get a Massachusetts licence by endorsement
For everyone else. Each step comes from Massachusetts’s own licensing sources; tick it off as you go.
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Registered as a nurse or licensed as a practical nurse in another state
- Detail
- The Board must consider that state to maintain substantially the same standards as Massachusetts for the corresponding license type.
Conditions & source context
Statutory eligibility only.
State statute · malegislature.gov · checked 9 Oct 2026
Source quotation
in another state under laws which, in the opinion of the board, maintain standards substantially the same as those of this commonwealth
malegislature.gov · State statute
-
- Required
- Yes
- State check
- Yes
- FBI check
- No
- Fingerprints
- No
- Vendor
- Massachusetts DCJIS criminal offender record information (CORI) check plus a Sex Offender Registry check, through the Board of Registration in Nursing
Conditions & source context
Since December 4, 2023 the Board runs a Massachusetts CORI check on every nursing applicant, by exam or reciprocity, before licensure or an NCLEX Authorization to Test, and checks the Sex Offender Registry. The CORI forms are in the online application; the CORI Acknowledgement Form must be signed before a notary or a Board employee. Fingerprints (state and FBI) apply to multistate licenses under M.G.L. c.112A § 18, not to a single-state Massachusetts license.
State Board of Nursing · mass.gov · checked 14 Oct 2026
Source quotation
all applicants for nursing licensure and advanced practice authorization will be required to have a Massachusetts criminal history background check completed
mass.gov · State Board of Nursing
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RN
- Statutory regulatory minimum hours
- 15
- Alternative
- Board may accept training and experience in lieu of continuing education.
- Mandated topics
Diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with cognitive impairments, including Alzheimer disease and dementia
- Frequency
- One-time course
- Scope
- Nurses who serve adult populations
LPN
- Statutory regulatory minimum hours
- 15
- Alternative
- Board may accept training and experience in lieu of continuing education.
- Mandated topics
Diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with cognitive impairments, including Alzheimer disease and dementia
- Frequency
- One-time course
- Scope
- Nurses who serve adult populations
Conditions & source context
Statutory floor, not a verified current Board CE total. Both statutes permit accepted training/experience instead of CE and limit the cognitive-impairment course to adult-serving nurses.
State statute · malegislature.gov · checked 9 Oct 2026
Source quotation
Said regulations shall provide that the minimum number of hours required shall not be less than fifteen hours.
malegislature.gov · State statute
Built from the Massachusetts nursing licensing record and the compact status table. A step appears only when the record has a sourced answer for it; anything else points to the board. Informational only: confirm with the board of nursing before you apply.