Updated for 2026

Nebraska PMHNP Continuing Education Requirements

Here's what a Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) must complete to renew in Nebraska.

These are the Nebraska 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.

Topic minimums
3prescribing opiates (including one-half hour on the nebraska prescription drug monitoring program)

Next deadline: October 31, 2026The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by October 31 of even years.

Where this comes from
State source
Nebraska 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

Nebraska PMHNP requirements

Total

Nebraska 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 October 31 of even years.

Topic minimums

Prescribing opiates (including one-half hour on the Nebraska Prescription Drug Monitoring Program)
3
You need 3 hours each cycle.

Cycle and record rules

Renewal
The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by October 31 of even years.
Renewal fee
Renewal fees by license status
Status / feeAmount and conditions
Registered Nurse renewal$123. Biennial RN license renewal (172 NAC 2-002, Nursing, "Registered Nurse ... $123").
172 NAC 2-002 Credentialing fees
Advanced Practice Nursing renewal$68. Biennial APRN license renewal, "Advanced Practice Nursing (in addition to RN license) ... $68" (172 NAC 2-002).
172 NAC 2-002 Credentialing fees

172 NAC 2-002 (amended effective 9/15/2020), "Credentials are renewed biennially unless otherwise noted". The figure recorded above is the APRN renewal, which is charged "in addition to" the RN renewal; an APRN-NP who holds a Nebraska RN license pays both.

We verified these fees on 2026-10-20. Board fee schedule.

New licensees
The Department waives continuing competency requirements at the first renewal of a credential issued within the biennium before the renewal date (172 NAC 10-004.03(B); Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-146(2)(b)), so no contact hours are owed for that first renewal, and for a nurse practitioner the three opiate-prescribing hours of Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-145(6) are waived with the rest. The renewal application and fee are still due by October 31.
Approved providers
The 20 RN hours must be "nursing continuing education from an approved provider" (172 NAC 101-005.02), an approved provider being one with "Nationally recognized, accredited status given to a provider regarding their capacity to award contact hours for continuing education activities" (101-002.03), such as an ANCC-accredited provider or approver. "The Board does not pre-approve continuing education offerings" but accepts academic courses related to the nursing practice role, "basic and advanced courses in the physical, social, and behavioral sciences" and courses on "the application of scientific knowledge to patient care" (101-005.02(A)-(C)). Continuing education "does not include orientation, in-service education or on-the-job training" (101-002.06). No provider gate is enforced because the Board keeps no list; keep the certificates. Hours count only "within the last 2 years" before the October 31 expiration (101-005.01(B)-(C)). The three opiate-prescribing hours are set by statute without a provider rule.
Recordkeeping
Keep CE documentation for 2 years after each renewal.
Board audit
The board may audit licensees to verify CE compliance.

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 a Nebraska 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.

  1. APRNAdvanced Practice Registered Nurse
    Nebraska · Biennial

    3 hours of prescribing opiates (including one-half hour on the nebraska prescription drug monitoring program) every 2 years.

    Requirements above
  2. RNRegistered Nurse
    Nebraska · Biennial

    No fixed CE hour total applies to a board-certified, prescribing PMHNP.

    Requirements above
  3. CSRState Controlled Substance Registration
    Nebraska

    Nebraska does not issue a separate CSR.

  4. PMHNP-BCPsychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Board Certified
    ANCC · Every 5 years

    75 CE hours every 5 years, including 25 hours of pharmacology.

    PMHNP-BC renewal requirements
  5. DEADEA Registration
    DEA · Triennial

    No recurring CE hours, but a one-time training applies.

    DEA renewal requirements
Your hours

Check where you stand

Enter the hours you have completed this cycle to see what is left before October 31, 2026.

Your result appears here as you enter hours.

Also hold a Nebraska Psychologist or LPC license? Each board runs its own CE cycle. See the Nebraska Psychologist and Nebraska LPC requirements.

Full board policy details
  • Continuing competency is a menu, of which the 20 hours are one path. "For purposes of license renewal, the applicant must document continuing competency by having: (A) Graduated from an approved nursing program within the previous 2 years; (B) Graduated from an approved nursing program in more than 2 but less than 5 years and have completed 20 contact hours of nursing continuing education from an approved provider within the last 2 years; (C) Practiced nursing for a minimum of 500 hours within the last 5 years and have completed 20 contact hours of nursing continuing education from an approved provider within the last 2 years; (D) Completed a Board-approved refresher course of study consisting of a minimum of 75 contact hours approved by the Board within the last 5 years; (E) Obtained and maintained current certification in a nursing specialty granted by a nationally recognized certifying organization for nursing; or (F) Developed and maintained a portfolio that includes the licensee's current continuing competency goals and evidence or verification of professional activities to meet those goals" (172 NAC 101-005.01). The engine models path (C), the one a working nurse without specialty certification uses, and lifts it for path (E) through the `pmhnp bc` row. The 500 practice hours, the recent graduation of path (A), the refresher course of (D) and the portfolio of (F) are attestations, not contact hours, and are not modeled; a nurse relying on (A), (D) or (F) sees 20 hours the Board would not ask for. Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-145(4)(b) lets a profession with continuing education on December 31, 2002 treat "continuing education" as "sufficient to meet continuing competency requirements".
  • No state contact hours on the APRN layer. "Each person holding an active advanced practice registered nursing license in the State of Nebraska must, on or before the date of expiration of the license, comply with the continuing competency requirements as noted in Neb. Rev. Stats. 38-616, 38-709, 38-909, and 38-2319 ... Evidence of continuing competency for the advanced practice registered nurse includes: 006.01 CERTIFICATION. Requirements for initial and ongoing certification are specified by the certifying body; and 006.02 PRACTICE. Advanced practice registered nurse - nurse practitioners must attest to 2,080 hours of practice over the 5 years preceding renewal as specified in Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-2319" (172 NAC 98-006, adopted effective 9/19/2020). The statute: "To renew a license to practice as a nurse practitioner, the applicant shall have: (1) Documentation of a minimum of two thousand eighty hours of practice as a nurse practitioner within the five years immediately preceding renewal. These practice hours shall fulfill the requirements of the practice hours required for registered nurse renewal ...; and (2) Proof of current certification in the specific nurse practitioner clinical specialty area by an approved certification program" (Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-2319). The certification's own 75 hours over five years are us-pmhnp bc.yaml. The "40 contact hours, 10 in pharmacotherapeutics" figure still printed by CE vendors and licensing guides came from the former 172 NAC 100, which Cornell LII shows "Repealed effective 9/19/2020"; nothing in chapter 98 or the Nurse Practitioner Practice Act carries it forward, so the APRN row has no total and no pharmacology floor. A reviewer who can reach the Department's APRN renewal page should confirm the attestation wording matches chapter 98.
  • Practice hours. The APRN-NP attests to 2,080 practice hours in the five years before renewal, "at least 500" of which licensing guides describe as direct clinical practice, and those hours "shall fulfill the requirements of the practice hours required for registered nurse renewal" (38-2319(1)), so an NP never separately proves the RN's 500 hours. A nurse practitioner who cannot show the hours, or for whom "more than five years have elapsed since the completion of the nurse practitioner program or since the applicant has practiced in the specific nurse practitioner role" (38-2317(2)), completes a Board- approved reentry program, "an organized approach to learning ... with education in pharmacotherapeutics and advanced assessments, as well as supervised clinical practice" (172 NAC 98-002.10), on a temporary license (98-004.02; 38-2318(1)(a)(iii)). Practice hours are not continuing education and are not modeled.
  • Prescribing and the opiate hours. Nurse practitioner practice includes "Prescribing therapeutic measures and medications relating to health conditions within the scope of practice" (Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-2315(2)(c)) with no separate prescriptive-authority credential, so the `prescribing` fact is true of every Nebraska APRN-NP and cannot identify the subset "who prescribes controlled substances" that 38-145(6) binds. A controlled-substance prescriber must hold a DEA registration, and under 28-407(1) that registration is what exempts the provider from any state registration, so the three hours are gated on a `dea` sibling row. An NP who prescribes controlled substances but has not entered the DEA row is under-asked until the row exists. "One-half hour of the three hours ... shall cover the prescription drug monitoring program" (38-145(6)); the engine has no PDMP slug, so a three-hour course tagged controlled substance prescribing satisfies the requirement whether or not it includes the PDMP segment, and the Department's course notice ("Controlled Substances Continuing Competency Requirements", dhhs.ne.gov) is the reference for a compliant course. The subsection "terminates on January 1, 2029", so the requirement carries effective to and disappears for the 2028-2030 biennium unless the Legislature extends it.
  • No state controlled-substance registration. "Every person who manufactures, prescribes, distributes, administers, or dispenses any controlled substance within this state ... shall obtain a registration issued by the department, except that on and after January 1, 2000, health care providers credentialed by the department and facilities licensed by the department shall not be required to obtain a separate Nebraska controlled substances registration upon providing proof of a Federal Controlled Substances Registration to the department" (Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-407(1)). A prescribing APRN-NP therefore reports the DEA number to the Department and holds no state registration; the Department's controlled substances registration is for persons and businesses without a federal registration. The Nebraska Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (71-2454 to 71-2456) is a database, not a registration. There is no `csr` row in this state; the federal DEA row is us-dea.yaml.
  • Waivers and inactive status. Beyond the first-credential waiver modeled above, "Credential holders actively engaged in military service are not required to pay the renewal fee or meet the continuing competency requirements" (172 NAC 10-004.03(A); Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-146(2)(a)), and the Department "may waive continuing competency requirements, in whole or in part, upon submission by a credential holder of documentation that circumstances beyond his or her control have prevented completion" (38-146(2)). A nurse may place the license on inactive status by written notice (38-142(3); 172 NAC 10-004.04) and reinstate it on application after "having met the continuing competency requirements" (172 NAC 10-007.03); a Nurse Licensure Compact nurse whose license went inactive on a change of primary state of residence reinstates on "meeting the continuing competency requirements, and paying the renewal fee" (38-2226). The catch-up equals the standard requirement, so no reactivation block is modeled.
  • Compacts and boards. Nebraska is a Nurse Licensure Compact state (chapter 101 and chapter 98 both define NURSYS as covering "all states in the Nurse Licensure Compact", and 172 NAC 98-003(A) lets an APRN applicant "hold a valid multi-state privilege from another compact state" instead of a Nebraska RN license), so a Nebraska-resident RN holds a multistate license renewed on this cycle and an out-of-state compact RN may hold the APRN-NP license without a Nebraska RN row. Nebraska has not enacted the APRN Compact, which is in effect nowhere. Renewal applications for nurses "shall include evidence that the licensee has registered with the electronic database utilized by the department" for license status and workforce data (38-142(1)). The AANP state fact sheet (October 2025) reports that under LB 346 (2025) nurse practitioner licensure moves from the Board of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses to the Board of Nursing on July 1, 2026; that transfers the board, not the renewal rules, and the Legislature's site could not be reached to read the bill.

Nebraska PMHNP CE: frequently asked questions

Which credentials does a Nebraska PMHNP renew?

4 separate credentials, each on its own renewal date: the APRN (Nebraska, biennial), the RN (Nebraska, biennial), the PMHNP-BC (ANCC, every 5 years), and the DEA (DEA, triennial). Nebraska issues no separate CSR. A lapse at any one of them stops prescribing.

How often do Nebraska PMHNP licensees renew?

The renewal cycle is biennial, and CE is due by October 31 of even years.

How much does Nebraska PMHNP license renewal cost?
Renewal fees by license status
Status / feeAmount and conditions
Registered Nurse renewal$123. Biennial RN license renewal (172 NAC 2-002, Nursing, "Registered Nurse ... $123").
172 NAC 2-002 Credentialing fees
Advanced Practice Nursing renewal$68. Biennial APRN license renewal, "Advanced Practice Nursing (in addition to RN license) ... $68" (172 NAC 2-002).
172 NAC 2-002 Credentialing fees

172 NAC 2-002 (amended effective 9/15/2020), "Credentials are renewed biennially unless otherwise noted". The figure recorded above is the APRN renewal, which is charged "in addition to" the RN renewal; an APRN-NP who holds a Nebraska RN license pays both.

We verified these fees on 2026-10-20. Board fee schedule.

Are there subject-specific CE requirements for Nebraska PMHNP licensees?

Yes. Nebraska requires 3 hours of prescribing opiates (including one-half hour on the nebraska prescription drug monitoring program).

Is the first renewal different for new Nebraska PMHNP licensees?

The Department waives continuing competency requirements at the first renewal of a credential issued within the biennium before the renewal date (172 NAC 10-004.03(B); Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-146(2)(b)), so no contact hours are owed for that first renewal, and for a nurse practitioner the three opiate-prescribing hours of Neb. Rev. Stat. 38-145(6) are waived with the rest. The renewal application and fee are still due by October 31.

Sources and verification

State source
Nebraska board rule
Fee schedule
Nebraska board fee schedule
Last verified
October 2026
Ruleset version
2026.2

We reviewed this page against the Nebraska 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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Nebraska 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.Nebraska mental health workforce data →9,059 active providers, or 448.9 per 100,000 residents, ranked 23 of 51. The page includes a county density map and free CSV downloads.

Other Nebraska CE requirement pages

Nebraska LPCNebraska LMFTNebraska LCSWNebraska PsychologistNebraska Addiction Counselor

PMHNP CE requirements in other states