Colorado Nurse Practitioner CE Requirements

• Licenses renew every 2 years (biennial).
• Licenses expire September 30 and renew every 2 years; whether yours falls in an odd- or even-numbered year depends on when the license was issued — check your exact date in DPO Online Services.

• No state-mandated total CE hours for RN or APRN license renewal.
• Colorado defers to maintenance of national certification for APRNs — certifying-body requirements apply (e.g., ANCC recertification).
• The only state-mandated training is the 2-hour substance use prevention requirement for prescribers (see Controlled-substance CE).

• No ongoing pharmacology CE hours are mandated by the state for renewal. Full Prescriptive Authority (RXN) renews with the license and requires only the substance use prevention training (3 CCR 716-1.15).
• Pharmacology requirements in rule 1.15 apply to initial prescriptive authority:
  • 3 graduate semester hours of pharmacology coursework
  • A 750-hour mentorship for provisional RXN
• Pharmacology CE may still be required by your national certifying body (e.g., ANCC: 25 pharmacology hours per 5-year recertification).

• APRNs with prescriptive authority (RXN) must complete at least 2 hours of substance use prevention training per renewal period (3 CCR 716-1.23, implementing C.R.S. 12-30-114(1)(a)).
• Flexible formats allowed:
  • CE courses
  • Self-study of scholarly articles or guidelines
  • Peer review involving opioid prescribing
  • Teaching
  • Conference attendance
• Attestation at renewal; subject to audit.
• Separately, the federal DEA MATE Act one-time 8-hour SUD training applies to DEA registrants.

• Some vendor sites claim 5 pharmacology contact hours per cycle for prescribers, but that figure does not appear in the official prescriptive-authority rule — treat it as unverified and likely erroneous or outdated.
• For a PMHNP, the practical pharmacology CE burden in Colorado comes from ANCC recertification, not the state.
• Colorado is an NLC compact state for RN licensure; the APRN is licensed separately with the RXN designation.

Official sources