Purpose: This study is a descriptive study to investigate the relevance between pathophysiological subject and examination workbook items for national nurse licensure examination in South Korea and the United States. Methods: Eight registered nurse licensure examination workbooks published by the Korean nurses association were used for the analysis. Saunders comprehensive review for the national council licensure examination (NCLEX-RN) was used for analysis of those in the United States. The relevance between the subjects in the standard syllabuses of pathophysiology and the registered nurse licensure exam items of these workbooks in South Korea and the United States respectively was analyzed. Results: The Relevance rates in South Korea and the United States were : fundamentals of nursing 6.34% vs 32.12%, adult nursing 25.5% vs 25.92% child health nursing 7.81% vs 21.7%, woman health nursing 5.1% vs 17.07% psychiatric mental health nursing 2.7% vs 7.32%, and community health nursing 0.9% vs 0%. Conclusion: the relevance in pathophysiology between the registered nurse licensure exam in South Korea and the United States was high in adult nursing and fundamentals of nursing (especially in the United States). In developing integrated registered nurse licensure exam questions, we should consider pathophysiology as an important subject.