Washington Nurse Practitioner CE Requirements

• The ARNP license renews every other year (biennial), by your birthday.
• It is the underlying RN license that renews annually by birthday — the ARNP credential itself does not renew annually.

• 30 contact hours of CE per 2-year renewal for each ARNP designation (WAC 246-840-360/-361).
• Renewal under WAC 246-840-360 requires:
  • An active Washington RN license
  • Current certification
  • 30 CE hours per designation
• A '250 hours of advanced practice per 2-year cycle' requirement is NOT in the current renewal rule.
• ARNPs must also meet the RN-level continuing competency: a minimum of 96 practice hours and 8 CE hours yearly.

• 15 contact hours of pharmacotherapeutics CE per 2-year reporting cycle for ARNPs with prescriptive authority, related to your scope of certification and practice (WAC 246-840-450/-451).
• These 15 hours are in addition to the 30-hour ARNP CE requirement.

• One-time 4-hour CE in best practices for opioid prescribing, for ARNPs who prescribe opioids (WAC 246-840-4655, from the 2019 opioid prescribing rules).
• Other Washington mandates:
  • One-time 6-hour suicide prevention training for RNs/ARNPs (RCW 43.70.442; CRNAs exempt)
  • Health equity CE: for Washington nurses, 2 of the required annual RN CE hours must be in health equity each renewal period (initial deadline: your 2026 renewal), under the WSBN rule implementing RCW 43.70.613; the statute's every-4-years cadence is only the minimum for other professions.
  • Federal one-time 8-hour DEA MATE Act training for DEA registrants

• A PMHNP with prescriptive authority needs 30 ARNP CE hours + 15 pharmacotherapeutics hours per 2-year cycle.
• RN-level continuing competency (recent rule updates added annual CE elements) is tracked separately from the ARNP requirements.

Official sources