My sister is a nurse (traveling nurse actually) and she does carry credentials. Moving to a new state requires you to get licensed all over again. However, from

My sister is a nurse (traveling nurse actually) and she does carry credentials. Moving to a new state requires you to get licensed all over again. However, from everything I can glean from the process, as a nurse you only have to take a certified test once. Then you just submit some paper work to have it renewed every few years, you do not need to retake boards every so often like physicians. When getting licensed in a new state (ie move from Montana to California), you just need to submit basic paperwork, background check/get finger printed and then you are licensed for the new state (no need to retake an exam). All these comments seem to indicate nurses have insanely high selective pressures to weed out people who suck. It's really, really not the case. The stories I hear about certain nurses who completely lack common sense are astounding. When my sister gets a new position (even when she started travel nursing after only 1 year of experience), she has a phone interview with a company hired by the hospital to find travel nurses. They may or may not contact her previous employers/references and then she finds out within a day or two if she has the job. It typically takes her 1 week to get a new assignment, 3 weeks tops if she is being exceptionally picky and trying to work in a specific area/hospital. That's all there is to it. She's gone through this process about 6 times in the past two years (I've even seen her do a phone interview while at a wine tasting! -- and she was offered the position) and she rarely stresses about these interviews as they are not technical.