New grad RN jobs and nurse residency programs in Rhode Island

A quarter of Rhode Island RNs earn less than $39.35 an hour ($81,840 a year) and half earn more than $48.39. First-year offers tend to sit near the lower figure, since hospital pay scales usually rise with experience.

That puts Rhode Island 13th of the 50 states and DC for median RN pay.

Pay is spread out in Rhode Island: $9.04 an hour separates the 25th percentile from the median, a wider gap than in most states.

The largest RN job market touching Rhode Island is the Providence-Warwick area, with 15,180 RNs; that count includes nurses in Massachusetts.

The Rhode Island Board of Nurse Registration and Nursing Education licenses RNs in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island is in the Nurse Licensure Compact. If Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island on their home state's multistate license.

Of its neighboring states, Connecticut is in the compact; Massachusetts is not, so working there means a separate license.

Yes, with conditions. Since June 2024, Rhode Island law lets graduates of approved nursing programs practice before taking and getting results of the NCLEX, as long as they are licensed in the state within 90 days of the licensing fee receipt, under the board's regulations.

Source: Rhode Island General Laws, section 5-34-31, 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.

In 2025, 790 first-time, U.S.-educated candidates took the NCLEX-RN for a Rhode Island license and 84.9% passed, 1.8 points below the national rate of 86.7%. That ranks Rhode Island 43rd of the 50 states and DC.

With 6 new-grad programs on our list, that is about 132 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, Massachusetts both pays RNs the most (a median of $104,550) and has the most new-grad programs on our list (31).