New grad RN jobs and nurse residency programs in Oregon

A quarter of Oregon RNs earn less than $51.55 an hour ($107,220 a year) and half earn more than $62.02. First-year offers tend to sit near the lower figure, since hospital pay scales usually rise with experience.

Oregon ranks 3rd of the 50 states and DC for median RN pay, among the best-paid places to be a nurse in the country.

Pay is spread out in Oregon: $10.47 an hour separates the 25th percentile from the median, a wider gap than in most states.

The largest RN job market touching Oregon is the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro area, with 24,220 RNs; that count includes nurses in Washington.

When people search for new grad RN jobs in Oregon, the places they name most often are Portland, Salem, Eugene, Bend and Medford.

The Oregon State Board of Nursing licenses RNs in Oregon.

Oregon is not in the Nurse Licensure Compact, so you need an Oregon license to work here whatever license you hold elsewhere. If you studied in another state, you can apply to the Oregon State Board of Nursing for licensure by examination and take the NCLEX for Oregon directly, or pass in your school's state and apply here by endorsement afterward.

Idaho and Washington, next door, are compact states, which matters if you might live on one side of the line and work on the other.

No. Oregon's limited licenses cover lapsed licenses, nurses returning after five years away, discipline, nurses from abroad in a study program, and emergencies. None is for a new graduate waiting on the exam.

Source: Oregon Revised Statutes, ORS 678.050, read October 2026.

Of its neighboring states, California, Idaho and Nevada do let new graduates work on a permit before passing. See every state's rule.

1,676 of the 1,888 first-time, U.S.-educated candidates who took the NCLEX-RN for Oregon in 2025 passed: 88.8%, 2.1 points above the national rate of 86.7%.

Set against the 27 new-grad programs we track here, that is about 70 new test takers per program, fewer than 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, California both pays RNs the most (a median of $140,270) and has the most new-grad programs on our list (266).