New Hampshire Nurse Practitioner license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

New Hampshire nurse practitioners must complete 60 contact hours of continuing education every two years to renew their license with the New Hampshire Board of Nursing, Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. Renew by midnight on your date of birth in the renewal year. Each renewal is valid for the two year biennium that begins the day after the previous license expired. Failure to renew forfeits the ability to practice. New Hampshire also mandates specific subjects. Education in pharmacology: 5 contact hours every renewal cycle. Pain management and addiction disorder, or a combination of the two: 3 contact hours every renewal cycle (only prescribers required to register with the controlled drug prescription health and safety program under RSA 126-A:89 to 96 who hold a United States Drug Enforcement Administration license number).

New Hampshire Nurse Practitioner renewal and continuing education rules

"Not stated" means the board's pages and rules we read do not address it. We do not fill in typical values.

New Hampshire states the layered structure explicitly in the rule. Nur 401.03 requires an advanced practice registered nurse applying for renewal to document at least 30 educational contact hours to satisfy the requirements of RN continuing competence and an additional 30 hours, 5 of which shall be education in pharmacology, all within the two years immediately before the date of application. The total obligation is therefore 60 contact hours per biennium, of which 5 must be pharmacology. Current national certification is separately required for a nurse practitioner licensed after September 1984, and Nur 401.03(b) allows that certification to be counted as 30 of the 60 contact hours, so a certified nurse practitioner in practice effectively documents the RN half plus the pharmacology hours. The RN half is the same 30 contact hours the board requires of every RN and LPN. A nurse practitioner who prescribes controlled substances and holds a DEA number owes an additional 3 contact hours in pain management and addiction disorder under RSA 318-B:41, VI; see mandatory_topics.

Required CE topics for New Hampshire nurse practitioners

State-specific subject mandates. Where a mandate applies only to some licensees, the scope is listed.

Documentation and audit

Common questions

How many CE hours does a New Hampshire NP need to renew?

New Hampshire nurse practitioners must complete 60 contact hours of continuing education every two years to renew their license with the New Hampshire Board of Nursing, Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. New Hampshire states the layered structure explicitly in the rule. Nur 401.03 requires an advanced practice registered nurse applying for renewal to document at least 30 educational contact hours to satisfy the requirements of RN continuing competence and an additional 30 hours, 5 of which shall be education in pharmacology, all within the two years immediately before the date of application. The total obligation is therefore 60 contact hours per biennium, of which 5 must be pharmacology. Current national certification is separately required for a nurse practitioner licensed after September 1984, and Nur 401.03(b) allows that certification to be counted as 30 of the 60 contact hours, so a certified nurse practitioner in practice effectively documents the RN half plus the pharmacology hours. The RN half is the same 30 contact hours the board requires of every RN and LPN. A nurse practitioner who prescribes controlled substances and holds a DEA number owes an additional 3 contact hours in pain management and addiction disorder under RSA 318-B:41, VI; see mandatory_topics.

How often does a New Hampshire NP license need to be renewed?

Nurse Practitioner licenses in New Hampshire renew every two years. Renew by midnight on your date of birth in the renewal year. Each renewal is valid for the two year biennium that begins the day after the previous license expired. Failure to renew forfeits the ability to practice.

What specific CE topics are required for New Hampshire nurse practitioners?

Education in pharmacology: 5 contact hours every renewal cycle. Pain management and addiction disorder, or a combination of the two: 3 contact hours every renewal cycle (only prescribers required to register with the controlled drug prescription health and safety program under RSA 126-A:89 to 96 who hold a United States Drug Enforcement Administration license number). Citations: education in pharmacology (Nur 401.03(a)) and pain management and addiction disorder, or a combination of the two (RSA 318-B:41, VI).

Do New Hampshire nurse practitioners have to submit CE certificates at renewal?

Proof of completion must be submitted with the renewal.

Sources

Last verified September 8, 2026. Every value above was read from one of these.

• New Hampshire Board of Nursing rules, Nur 100 to Nur 800 (Nur 401.01 renewal, Nur 401.03 APRN renewal requirements)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 8, 2026
• RSA 318-B:41, Controlled Drug Prescription Health and Safety Program (paragraph VI, prescriber continuing education)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 8, 2026

The 60 hour total, its split into 30 RN continuing competence hours plus 30 advanced practice hours, the 5 pharmacology hours, the national certification requirement and the rule allowing certification to count as 30 of the 60 hours were all read in Nur 401.03. The biennial renewal by midnight on the licensee's date of birth was read in Nur 401.01. The prescriber pain management requirement was read in RSA 318-B:41, VI. The topic key pharmacology is not one of the canonical keys listed in the schema; it is used here because the brief directs that pharmacology hours be captured under that key. Documentation is recorded as proof at renewal true because Nur 401.03 requires the renewal applicant to document the hours and the certification with the application, and because RSA 318-B:41, VI requires verification of the pain management course to be submitted with the renewal application; no separate retention period or audit rate for advanced practice licensees was found. The board's own pages at oplc.nh.gov block automated clients and were not read, so no board page is cited and the board_url is listed unread. No board renewal page URL could be verified, so renewal_url is null. Cross-checked 2026-09-09 against the other New Hampshire records: this one records renewal basis birth_date, while nh-pt, nh-pta and the physician records record issue_date on the authority of RSA 310:8, II. RSA 310:8, II was read in full at gc.nh.gov and does say two years from issuance with a supersession clause, but it speaks to conflicting statutes and the basis here comes from the board's own rules, which still describe a different date. OPLC's apply and renew pages state no basis. The disagreement is recorded as an advisory rather than resolved, because nothing readable establishes which governs in practice.