North Dakota PMHNP Continuing Education Requirements
Here's what a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) must complete to renew in North Dakota.
These are the North Dakota 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.
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.
- State source
- North Dakota 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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North Dakota PMHNP requirements
Total
North Dakota sets no APRN hour total that applies to every board-certified PMHNP. The topic minimums below still apply. Your ANCC certification renewal sets its own hours, listed with your other credentials. 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
- Pharmacotherapy related to the scope of practice (prescriptive authority)
- 15
- You need 15 hours each cycle.
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 $140 every 2 years, and a late (delinquent) renewal adds a $140 fee.
- New licensees
- No continuing education is required at the first renewal of a North Dakota RN license obtained by examination: "An applicant that obtained initial RN or LPN licensure through examination will not need to complete additional contact hours of approved continuing education before the first renewal of a nursing license. The requirements have been met through the academic coursework" (Board renewal page and FAQ). The hours are waived outright, not deferred, and the licensee still attests on the renewal form. A license obtained by endorsement owes the 12 contact hours even at its first renewal ("Even though this may be your first renewal you MUST verify ... that you have completed the required 12 contact hours"). The prescriptive-authority pharmacotherapy hours have no first-renewal exception.
- Approved providers
- Hours must be "approved or recognized by the board" (54-02-05-08(1)). The Board recognizes "The North Dakota Board of Nursing", "An accredited college or university", "A health care regulatory board" and "A professional organization that is nationally accredited to approve CE", and will accept "at face value, the number of hours awarded for an educational activity that has been approved for CE" by any of them (Board CE page and FAQ). One contact hour is 60 minutes; one CME hour equals one contact hour; one academic quarter hour is 10 contact hours and one semester hour 15. Acceptable subjects are "Social, legal and ethical aspects of nursing practice", "Content related to nursing practice", "Quality assurance, accrediting or regulation standards and processes" and "Courses required for progression in a nursing program". Not accepted: Basic Life Support and CPR; shortened ACLS, PALS and NRP recertification courses (a full advanced life support course counts once per cycle); "Repetition of any educational activity with identical content and objectives within a single reporting period"; agency orientation and in-service programs; unapproved self-directed study; community service or volunteer practice; administrative or disciplinary CE; organization membership; unapproved portions of meetings; and UpToDate certificates. "Contact hours obtained for renewal of license or certification in another regulated profession cannot be used for maintaining nursing licensure." Hours must fall in the two years before the expiration date and never carry over (54-02-05-08(4)).
- Recordkeeping
- Keep CE documentation for 4 years after each renewal.
- Board audit
- The board may audit licensees to verify CE compliance.
- Late renewal
- A late renewal adds a $140 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.
Every credential a North Dakota 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 NurseNorth Dakota · Biennial
15 hours of pharmacotherapy related to the scope of practice (prescriptive authority) every 2 years.
Requirements above - RNRegistered Nurse
- CSRState Controlled Substance RegistrationNorth Dakota
North Dakota does not issue a separate CSR.
- 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
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 North Dakota Psychologist or LPC license? Each board runs its own CE cycle. See the North Dakota Psychologist and North Dakota LPC requirements.
North Dakota PMHNP required trainings and mandates
North Dakota also 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
- Nursing practice of at least 400 hours within the preceding four years, attested at renewal ("Nursing practice for purposes of renewal must meet or exceed four hundred hours within the preceding four years", N.D. Admin. Code 54-02-05-05.1). Hours in another regulated profession do not count. Exempt: a nurse who completed a refresher course within the preceding year or graduated from a nursing program in the last four years (Board renewal page). Not continuing education; the engine does not count it.
- Evidence of current national certification in the APRN role and at least one population focus, or participation in a board-recognized competence maintenance program, at each APRN renewal (N.D. Admin. Code 54-05-03.1-06(3)); prescriptive authority renewal also requires "verification of current certification by a national nursing certification body in the specific area of nursing practice" (54-05-03.1-11(2)). A lapse ends eligibility for licensure and must be reported to the Board. For a PMHNP it is the ANCC PMHNP-BC row (us-pmhnp bc.yaml). A renewal condition, not continuing education.
Full board policy details
- One file, two rows, different obligations. The RN license owes 12 contact hours (54-02-05-08) and 400 practice hours in four years (54-02-05-05.1). The APRN license, valid "for the same period of time as the applicant's registered nurse license", is renewed on an application, an $80 fee and "evidence of current national certification in the appropriate advanced practice registered nurse role and with at least one population focus, or participate in a competence maintenance program recognized by the board" (54-05-03.1-06); it carries no hours of its own. Prescriptive authority adds 15 pharmacotherapy hours and a $75 fee (54-05-03.1-11). Nurses holding both licenses may submit a "combined" RN/APRN renewal in the Nurse Portal, which the Board recommends. Because the 15 pharmacotherapy hours "may fulfill the registered nurse renewal continuing education requirement" (54-05-03.1-11(5)), a prescribing PMHNP who logs 15 pharmacology hours in the period satisfies both rows at once.
- National certification is a licensure condition, not a CE substitute. An APRN "must hold a current certification in an advanced nursing role and population foci by a national organization. If your certification expires, you will no longer meet the requirements for licensure in ND ... Licensee shall notify the Board office if certification expires/lapses" (Board APRN FAQ; N.D.C.C. 43-12.1-09; 54-05-03.1-04(3), -06(3)). Prescriptive authority renewal also requires "verification of current certification by a national nursing certification body in the specific area of nursing practice" (54-05-03.1-11(2)). Neither rule accepts certification in place of the RN 12 or the 15 pharmacotherapy hours (contrast Texas and Nebraska), so nothing is gated on `pmhnp bc`; the certification is carried as an external mandate on the APRN row and its own 75 hours are governed by us-pmhnp bc.yaml.
- Practice requirement. "Nursing practice for purposes of renewal must meet or exceed four hundred hours within the preceding four years ... Hours practiced in another regulated profession cannot be used for nursing practice hours" (54-02-05-05.1). The Board exempts nurses who "have completed a refresher course within the preceding year or graduated from a nursing undergraduate or nursing graduate program in the last four (4) years with less than 400 hours of nursing practice" (Board renewal page). It is an attestation on the renewal form, not CE, and the engine does not count practice hours, so it is carried as an external mandate. A nurse who has not practiced in North Dakota for four years or more reactivates under 54-02-05-05 instead (400 hours in another jurisdiction, a refresher course, a clinical nursing course, or other evidence of competence).
- Prescribers owe no opioid or controlled-substance hours. North Dakota has no pain management, opioid, controlled-substance or MATE-style CE for APRNs; the only prescriber education is the 15 pharmacotherapy hours above and the federal MATE Act training on the DEA row (us-dea.yaml). An APRN with prescriptive authority "who prescribes controlled substances has access to the North Dakota prescription drug monitoring program and shall utilize" it: query a report for a new client needing a controlled substance, every six months during treatment, on early-refill requests and on suspected misuse, and document each evaluation (54-05-03.1-10(4), effective October 1, 2016). That is a practice duty, not CE or a registration, and is not modeled. The APRN may not prescribe controlled substances to self, spouse or child (54-05-03.1-10(7)).
- No state controlled-substance registration. N.D.C.C. 19-03.1-16(1) requires a registration "issued by the board in accordance with its rules" of persons who dispense controlled substances, and 19-03.1-17(3) says "Practitioners must be registered to dispense any controlled substances", but the Board of Pharmacy issues no practitioner registration: N.D. Admin. Code 61-11-01-01 lists fees for pharmacists, interns, technicians, pharmacies, and manufacturers and wholesalers and none for a practitioner controlled-substance registration, chapter 61-13-01 only schedules substances, and the Board's application and renewal pages offer no practitioner license. NDSU's research compliance office states that "North Dakota does not require or issue registrations for the research use of controlled substances" and sends practitioners straight to DEA Form 224. The nursing rule requires only a DEA number before prescribing controlled substances (54-05-03.1-10(3)). No `csr` row for North Dakota.
- No statewide topic mandates. North Dakota has no implicit bias, human trafficking, suicide prevention, ethics, infection control, cultural competency or jurisprudence CE for nurses. N.D.C.C. 43-12.1-20 (continuing education requirements) was repealed by S.L. 2013, ch. 321, section 12; the Board now acts under its duty to "Adopt and enforce rules for continuing competence of licensees and registrants" (43-12.1-08(2)(m)).
- Alternative activities. "Successful completion of a course taken through an accredited college or university may be used to meet the CE requirement" at 10 contact hours per quarter hour and 15 per semester hour. "Evidence of publication during the renewal time frame may be submitted for verification of the 12 contact hours: One article related to nursing practice in a refereed journal, One book chapter, or Research project published" (Board CE page); log the publication with the hours it is claimed for, tagged publication. Presenter credit is capped at six hours (modeled). A comprehensive ACLS, PALS or NRP course counts once per two-year cycle; shortened recertifications do not.
- Reactivation. A lapsed license is reactivated, not late-renewed, by application, criminal history record check, "the nonrenewable renewal fee and fifty dollar reactivation fee", and the practice and CE requirements of 54-02-05-05.1 and 54-02-05-08, "or Submit other evidence which would provide proof of nursing competence acceptable to the board" (54-02-05-06); an APRN-only reactivation adds the 54-05-03.1-06 requirements (54-05-03.1-06.1). "An applicant for reactivation of a license can use refresher course contact hours for the first renewal cycle after reactivation of a license" (Board CE page). The catch-up equals the standard 12, so no reactivation block is modeled. A nurse unable to show competence may be reactivated to a limited license (54-02-05-05.2).
- Compacts. North Dakota joined the Nurse Licensure Compact on January 1, 2004 and moved to the enhanced NLC on January 19, 2018 (Board law and rules page); a North Dakota-resident RN may hold a multistate license renewed on this cycle, and a nurse who moves out of state must convert. "APRN Licensure is not a part of the NLC; all APRN licenses are single-state" (Board APRN licensure page). North Dakota was the first state to enact the APRN Compact (2021), but the compact needs seven member states and has not taken effect, so every North Dakota APRN license is single-state. An APRN on a compact RN from another home state renews "Advanced Practice License ONLY" ($80, or $155 with prescriptive authority) and owes no North Dakota RN hours.
North Dakota PMHNP CE: frequently asked questions
Which credentials does a North Dakota PMHNP renew?
4 separate credentials, each on its own renewal date: the APRN (North Dakota, biennial), the RN (North Dakota, biennial), the PMHNP-BC (ANCC, every 5 years), and the DEA (DEA, triennial). North Dakota issues no separate CSR. A lapse at any one of them stops prescribing.
How often do North Dakota 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 North Dakota PMHNP license renewal cost?
The board's renewal fee is $140 every 2 years, per the North Dakota board fee schedule. Renewing late adds a $140 delinquency fee on top. CE course costs are separate and set by course providers.
Are there subject-specific CE requirements for North Dakota PMHNP licensees?
Yes. North Dakota requires 15 hours of pharmacotherapy related to the scope of practice (prescriptive authority).
Is the first renewal different for new North Dakota PMHNP licensees?
No continuing education is required at the first renewal of a North Dakota RN license obtained by examination: "An applicant that obtained initial RN or LPN licensure through examination will not need to complete additional contact hours of approved continuing education before the first renewal of a nursing license. The requirements have been met through the academic coursework" (Board renewal page and FAQ). The hours are waived outright, not deferred, and the licensee still attests on the renewal form. A license obtained by endorsement owes the 12 contact hours even at its first renewal ("Even though this may be your first renewal you MUST verify ... that you have completed the required 12 contact hours"). The prescriptive-authority pharmacotherapy hours have no first-renewal exception.
Sources and verification
- State source
- North Dakota board rule
- Fee schedule
- North Dakota board fee schedule
- Last verified
- October 2026
- Ruleset version
- 2026.2
We reviewed this page against the North Dakota 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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