New grad RN jobs and nurse residency programs in Connecticut

A quarter of Connecticut RNs earn less than $41.40 an hour ($86,120 a year) and half earn more than $49.39. First-year offers tend to sit near the lower figure, since hospital pay scales usually rise with experience.

That puts Connecticut 10th of the 50 states and DC for median RN pay.

Pay is spread out in Connecticut: $7.99 an hour separates the 25th percentile from the median, a wider gap than in most states.

The Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford area employs 13,850 RNs, about 35% of the state's total.

The Connecticut Board of Nurse Licensure licenses RNs in Connecticut.

Connecticut is in the Nurse Licensure Compact. If Connecticut is your primary state of residence, the license you earn after the NCLEX can be multistate, valid in every compact state. Nurses who live in another compact state can work in Connecticut on their home state's multistate license.

Of its neighboring states, Rhode Island is in the compact; Massachusetts and New York are not, so working there means a separate license.

Yes, with conditions. No permit is issued. State law lets graduates practice in hospitals and other organizations that provide adequate supervision while awaiting results, for up to 90 days after graduation. The privilege ends automatically if you fail.

Source: Connecticut Department of Public Health, graduate nurses, read October 2026. The permit makes it legal; whether you can use it depends on the employer, since not every hospital starts graduate nurses before they are licensed. Ask the recruiter.

29 of the 50 states and DC allow something like this, each with its own limits. See every state's rule.

1,974 of the 2,275 first-time, U.S.-educated candidates who took the NCLEX-RN for Connecticut in 2025 passed: 86.8%, about the same as the national rate of 86.7%.

With 19 new-grad programs on our list, that is about 120 new test takers for each one, near the national figure of about 114.

The exam is the same everywhere; the rate tells you about the graduates who tested here, not about your own chances. See pass rates in every state.

Among its neighboring states, New York both pays RNs the most (a median of $109,440) and has the most new-grad programs on our list (60).