Alabama PMHNP Continuing Education Requirements
Alabama psychiatric nurse practitioners must complete 24 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew their APRN license, including 6 hours of pharmacology.
These are the Alabama APRN license requirements for a board-certified PMHNP who prescribes controlled substances. Your RN license, ANCC certification and DEA registration renew separately; see every credential.
24hours every 2 years
Topic minimums, counted within the 24
6pharmacology
The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by December 31 of your renewal year. Every license expires December 31; the year varies by licensee.
Where this comes from
- State source
- Alabama board rule
- Last verified
- October 2026
- Ruleset version
- 2026.2
Every figure on this page is read from this rule, and the page refreshes when the ruleset changes. How we verify
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Requirements
Alabama PMHNP requirements
Total
24 hoursYou need 24 hours every 2 years. The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by December 31 of your renewal year. Every license expires December 31; the year varies by licensee.
Topic minimums, counted within the 24
The remaining 18 hours are not tied to a topic minimum.
- Pharmacology
- 6
- You need 6 hours each cycle. Pharmacology hours and prescriptive authority: prescriptive authority for legend drugs is granted by the Board of Nursing "upon submission of evidence of completion of an academic course in pharmacology or evidence of integration of pharmacology theory and clinical application in the certified registered nurse practitioner curriculum" (610-X-5-.12(1)) and is exercised under a Board-approved standard protocol and formulary (610-X-5-.12(2)). Nearly every CRNP holds it, so the six hours are asked of any `aprn` row whose `prescribing` fact is yes; a CRNP approved without prescriptive authority answers no. The hours must be "specific to prescriptive practice in the approved area for collaborative practice" (for a PMHNP, psychopharmacology), and graduate pharmacology coursework from the NP program does not count. Controlled-substance authority (Schedules III to V) is the separate QACSC (al-csr.yaml), whose four-hour Board of Medical Examiners course the Board of Nursing accepts toward the six.
Cycle and record rules
- Renewal
- The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by December 31 of your renewal year. Every license expires December 31; the year varies by licensee.
- Renewal fee
- The board renewal fee is $100 every 2 years.
- New licensees
- At the first renewal the 24 hours are prorated to one contact hour for each calendar month remaining in the earning period, and four of them must be the Board's own course on the statutory and administrative frameworks for nursing regulation, scope of practice and standards of practice (Ala. Admin. Code r. 610-X-4-.08(3)(c)3.(i)). A CRNP approved with a year or less left in the license period owes no pharmacology hours at that first advanced practice renewal (610-X-4-.08(7)(d)); one approved earlier owes the six.
- Approved providers
- Hours must be "Board-approved or Board-recognized" (610-X-4-.08(3)(c)3.): providers holding an Alabama Board of Nursing Provider (ABNP) number, or recognized providers, which include "Continuing education approved by any state board of nursing in the United States or its territories", "Any continuing education provider approved by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or the International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET)", national nursing organizations, Alabama regulatory boards, "AMA PRA Category 1 Credits sponsored or conducted by those organizations or entities accredited by the Council on Medical Education of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama or by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)", standardized national courses, state nurses associations and accredited colleges and universities (610-X-10-.04). An ABNP provider reports hours to the Board electronically; the nurse uploads certificates for recognized providers (610-X-10-.07(1)(d)). "Continuing education classes and activities may not be repeated within the earning period for credit" (610-X-10-.02(10)), and a contact hour is fifty minutes (610-X-10-.02(8)).
- Recordkeeping
- Keep CE documentation for 4 years after the end of each cycle.
- Board audit
- The board may audit licensees to verify CE compliance.
- Late renewal
- A late renewal adds a late fee.
To keep your proof in order, see what to keep for a CE audit, which covers every state’s retention period and what the audit notice asks for.
Credential stack
Every credential an Alabama PMHNP renews
Each one renews on its own date, and a lapse at any of them stops prescribing. The ANCC certification and DEA registration are the same in every state.
- APRNAdvanced Practice Registered Nurse
- RNRegistered Nurse
- CSRState Controlled Substance RegistrationAlabama · Annual
No fixed CE hour total applies to a board-certified, prescribing PMHNP.
Alabama board rule - PMHNP-BCPsychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Board CertifiedANCC · Every 5 years
75 CE hours every 5 years, including 25 hours of pharmacology.
PMHNP-BC renewal requirements - DEADEA Registration
Your hours
Check where you stand
Enter the hours you have completed this cycle to see what is left before your renewal.
Your result appears here as you enter hours.
Also hold a Alabama Psychologist or LPC license? Each board runs its own CE cycle. See the Alabama Psychologist and Alabama LPC requirements.
Alabama PMHNP required trainings and mandates
Beyond the 24-hour CE total, Alabama requires specific trainings. Some are due once around initial licensure, and others run on their own recurring schedule.
Recurring mandates outside the 2-year cycle
- Board of Nursing continuing education "regarding the rules and statutes governing collaborative practice in Alabama", completed "not more than forty-eight (48) months prior to or within twelve (12) months of commencement of the collaborative practice" (Ala. Admin. Code r. 610-X-9-.14(3); verified at renewal under 610-X-9-.16(5)(e)). One-time per collaborative practice agreement; the Board's own three courses (3.5 contact hours in all) satisfy it. Any logged completion tagged laws and rules counts; a new collaboration restarts the clock, which the engine cannot see.
Full board policy details
- Acceptable content and activities: content must fall within 610-X-10-.03(1) (clinical technology, specialty practice, patient care, administration, "Social, legal, and ethical aspects of nursing", nursing education and research, quality improvement, academic credit after initial licensure, professional conduct, facility orientation and mandatory annual education, and serving as an appointed facility preceptor), and "Courses that are not directly applicable to nursing practice are not acceptable", such as self-help, lay CPR and first aid, and personal-finance courses (610-X-10-.03(2)). Activities may be workshops, seminars, classroom, web casts, online, intranet and home study courses, journal CE and podcasts (610-X-10-.05(1)), so there is no self-study cap; presenting an original paper and authoring an article, book or research study count if approved by a Board-approved provider (610-X-10-.05(2)-(3)). Conversion: "15 contact hours = 1 academic semester credit hour", "10 contact hours = 1 academic quarter credit hour", "1 contact hour = 0.1 continuing education unit (CEU)" (610-X-10-.02(8)); standardized national courses are capped (BLS 1.75, ACLS 8, PALS 8, TNCC 12, NRP 11) and a facility preceptorship "may be recognized for 8 contact hours" (610-X-10-.02(12)-(13)). None of these caps is modeled; a PMHNP's hours are ordinary coursework.
- CRNP approval renews with the RN license and on national certification, not on separate hours. "Approval for advanced practice may be continued at the time of renewal, upon verification of: (a) Meeting the requirements of Rule 610-X-9-.14 [an active Alabama or multistate RN license, the graduate program and current national certification]. (b) Continued collaboration with the approved physician(s) or eligibility for continued exemption from collaboration. (c) Payment of the advanced practice renewal fee. (d) Six contact hours of pharmacology content specific to prescriptive practice ... (e) Documented evidence of completion of continuing education prescribed by the Board of Nursing regarding the rules and statutes governing collaborative practice in Alabama, not more than forty-eight (48) months prior to or within twelve (12) months of commencement of the collaborative practice" (610-X-9-.16(5)); "Failure to meet the requirements for renewal shall result in lapse of the advanced practice approval" (6). "The advanced practice approval shall expire prior to the RN license if the nurse practitioner's national certification expires during the license period" (610-X-9-.16(4); 610-X-4-.08(7)), and a nurse who "fails to attain or maintain national certification ... shall ... Immediately notify the Board of Nursing" and "Not practice as or use the title of certified registered nurse practitioner until approved" (610-X-9-.16(7)). The certification's own CE is ANCC's (us-pmhnp bc.yaml).
- Collaborative practice rules course (one-time per collaboration): a CRNP must "Have obtained continuing education prescribed by the Board of Nursing regarding the rules and statutes governing collaborative practice in Alabama, not more than forty-eight (48) months prior to or within twelve (12) months of commencement of the collaborative practice" (610-X-9-.14(3), repeated at renewal in .16(5)(e) and on reinstatement in .20(3)). The Board's "Required CE for APRNs in Collaborative Practice" page lists three of its own courses: "An Overview of Collaborative Practice in Alabama" (1.70 contact hours), "The Approval Process for CRNPs and CNMs" (0.60) and "Protocols Skills and Professional Responsibilities for CRNPs and CNMs" (1.20). Unlike the collaborating physician's parallel Board of Medical Examiners CME, which recurs "every forty-eight months (48) following commencement of the collaborative practice" (610-X-5-.04(6)), the CRNP's duty is tied to the start of each collaboration and does not recur, so it is carried as a non-recurring external mandate below, satisfied by any completion tagged laws and rules. The Board's courses count toward the 24 contact hours as ordinary Board-provided CE (610-X-10-.02(6)).
- Pharmacology hours and prescriptive authority: prescriptive authority for legend drugs is granted by the Board of Nursing "upon submission of evidence of completion of an academic course in pharmacology or evidence of integration of pharmacology theory and clinical application in the certified registered nurse practitioner curriculum" (610-X-5-.12(1)) and is exercised under a Board-approved standard protocol and formulary (610-X-5-.12(2)). Nearly every CRNP holds it, so the six hours are asked of any `aprn` row whose `prescribing` fact is yes; a CRNP approved without prescriptive authority answers no. The hours must be "specific to prescriptive practice in the approved area for collaborative practice" (for a PMHNP, psychopharmacology), and graduate pharmacology coursework from the NP program does not count. Controlled-substance authority (Schedules III to V) is the separate QACSC (al-csr.yaml), whose four-hour Board of Medical Examiners course the Board of Nursing accepts toward the six.
- Reinstatement of a lapsed RN license: "Evidence of completion of twenty-four contact hours of approved continuing education within the twenty-four months preceding application"; "Contact hours earned for reinstatement of a lapsed license may not be used toward the continuing education requirement for the next license renewal"; the reinstated nurse "shall accrue for license renewal one contact hour for each calendar month remaining in the license period"; and "If the reinstatement of a lapsed license occurs during the renewal period for that license type, the expiration of the license shall be the end of the next license period" (610-X-4-.10). Reinstatement of a lapsed CRNP approval requires an active RN license, fees, current national certification, "six contact hours of pharmacology content specific to prescriptive practice ... earned within the 24 months immediately preceding application" and the collaborative practice course (610-X-9-.20). The Board's FAQ: "The reinstatement fee is $75 per APN role" ($150 for a non-Alabama multistate licensee). The catch-up equals the standard requirement, so no conditional block is needed; the post-reinstatement month-by-month accrual is the engine's proration.
- Nurse Licensure Compact: Alabama implemented the enhanced NLC on January 1, 2020 ("Effective January 1, 2020, applicants who meet the requirements for multistate licensure may apply", Board NLC page), so an Alabama-resident RN may hold a multistate license that renews in odd-numbered years for $200 instead of the single-state $100 (610-X-4-.14(9)); the CE is the same 24 hours. A CRNP practicing on another compact state's multistate license holds no Alabama RN row, renews the advanced practice approval "between September 1 and December 31 of odd-numbered years" (610-X-4-.08(7)-(8)) for $75, still owes the six pharmacology hours (Board, "Advanced Practice Nursing and the Nurse Licensure Compact": "6 hours CE pharmacology required"), and loses the approval immediately if the home-state RN license lapses (610-X-4- .08(9)). "The NLC applies only to RNs and LPNs. All APNs practicing in Alabama must maintain APN Approval with the ABN" (same notice). Alabama has not enacted the APRN Compact, so every CRNP approval is single-state.
- No other statewide mandates: Alabama attaches no implicit bias, human trafficking, suicide prevention, infection control, ethics or opioid continuing education to RN or CRNP renewal. The controlled-substance prescribing education sits on the QACSC (al-csr.yaml: four AMA PRA Category 1 credits every two years, 540-X-18-.05(2)), and the federal MATE Act training on the DEA row (us-dea.yaml). The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program registration a QACSC holder must keep current (540-X-18-.05(3)) is a registration duty, not education.
Alabama PMHNP CE: frequently asked questions
Which credentials does an Alabama PMHNP renew?
5 separate credentials, each on its own renewal date: the APRN (Alabama, biennial), the RN (Alabama, biennial), the CSR (Alabama, annual), the PMHNP-BC (ANCC, every 5 years), and the DEA (DEA, triennial). A lapse at any one of them stops prescribing.
How many CE hours do Alabama PMHNP licensees need?
Alabama requires 24 continuing education hours every 2 years to renew a PMHNP license. The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by December 31 of your renewal year. Every license expires December 31; the year varies by licensee.
How often do Alabama PMHNP licensees renew?
The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by December 31 of your renewal year. Every license expires December 31; the year varies by licensee.
How much does Alabama PMHNP license renewal cost?
The board's renewal fee is $100 every 2 years, per the Alabama board fee schedule. CE course costs are separate and set by course providers.
Are there subject-specific CE requirements for Alabama PMHNP licensees?
Yes. Alabama requires 6 hours of pharmacology.
Is the first renewal different for new Alabama PMHNP licensees?
At the first renewal the 24 hours are prorated to one contact hour for each calendar month remaining in the earning period, and four of them must be the Board's own course on the statutory and administrative frameworks for nursing regulation, scope of practice and standards of practice (Ala. Admin. Code r. 610-X-4-.08(3)(c)3.(i)). A CRNP approved with a year or less left in the license period owes no pharmacology hours at that first advanced practice renewal (610-X-4-.08(7)(d)); one approved earlier owes the six.
Sources and verification
- State source
- Alabama board rule
- Fee schedule
- Alabama board fee schedule
- Last verified
- October 2026
- Ruleset version
- 2026.2
We reviewed this page against the Alabama board source, and we refresh it from the compiled ruleset above. Methodology and disclaimer. Compliance data is for guidance only, not legal or board advice. Always confirm requirements with your licensing board before renewing. See something wrong? Report it
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Alabama guides & data
What to keep for a CE audit →Learn what boards ask for in a CE audit, how long each state says to keep certificates, and what the notice looks like, then use the printable checklist.Alabama mental health workforce data →9,968 active providers, or 191.9 per 100,000 residents, ranked 51 of 51. The page includes a county density map and free CSV downloads.
Other Alabama CE requirement pages
PMHNP CE requirements in other states
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
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