Texas Nurse Practitioner CE Requirements

• APRN licenses renew every 2 years (biennial).

• 20 contact hours of continuing nursing education in your area of practice per licensing period — OR achievement, maintenance, or renewal of a Board-approved national nursing certification (22 TAC 216.3).
• All nurses must also complete:
  • A human trafficking prevention course each renewal
  • 2 hours of nursing jurisprudence/ethics every third licensing period

• 5 contact hours of pharmacotherapeutics CE per licensing period for any APRN with prescriptive authority (22 TAC 216.3(c)(3)).
• These are in addition to the base 20 hours — and national certification may NOT be used to satisfy them.
• Category I CME may be used.

• APRNs with prescriptive authority who prescribe controlled substances must complete 3 additional contact hours on prescribing controlled substances per licensing period — on top of the 20 + 5, for 28 total.
• If your prescriptive authority agreement authorizes opioid prescribing, you also need at least 2 hours annually (4 per biennium) on safe and effective pain management related to opioids/controlled substances (22 TAC 216.3(c)(4), from HB 2454 (2019)).

• Texas is a heavy pharmacology-CE state: a prescribing PMHNP needs 20 base + 5 pharmacotherapeutics + 3 controlled-substance = 28 hours per biennium.
• Add the annual 2-hour opioid pain-management CE if your prescriptive authority agreement covers opioids.
• The 3-hour controlled-substance add-on is a newer provision — older summaries citing only 25 total hours are out of date.

Official sources