South Carolina Certified Nurse-Midwife license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

South Carolina nurse-midwives must complete 30 contact hours of continuing education every two years to renew their license with the South Carolina Board of Nursing (South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation). Nursing licenses, including advanced practice registered nurse licensure, renew biennially and expire April 30 of even numbered years. The board's renewals page shows the most recent window opening February 1, 2026 and closing April 30, 2026, with licenses renewed then expiring April 30, 2028. A renewal submitted after April 30 is subject to reinstatement requirements and additional fees, and after May 31 the online portal closes and a paper reinstatement application with a new background check is required. South Carolina also mandates specific subjects. Continuing education in pharmacotherapeutics: 20 contact hours every renewal cycle (certified nurse-midwives who hold prescriptive authority). Prescribing controlled substances: 2 contact hours every renewal cycle (certified nurse-midwives who hold controlled substance prescriptive authority).

South Carolina Certified Nurse-Midwife 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.

South Carolina writes one continued competency requirement for renewal of an active nursing license and lets the licensee satisfy it by any one of four routes. S.C. Code 40-33-40(B)(1) requires documented evidence during the licensure period of at least one of: completion of thirty contact hours from a continuing education provider recognized by the board, maintenance of certification or recertification by a national certifying body recognized by the board, completion of an academic program of study in nursing or a related field recognized by the board, or verification of competency and the number of hours practiced as evidenced by employer certification. The thirty hour figure recorded here is the continuing education route; the other three are recorded as alternatives. This is not a stack on top of a separate registered nurse figure: South Carolina states one competency requirement in 40-33-40 that reaches every nurse renewing an active license, and the statute states no additional flat hour total for the advanced practice license. Most nurse-midwives satisfy it through the certification route, because 40-33-20(18) defines a certified nurse-midwife as an advanced practice registered nurse who maintains an American Midwifery Certification Board certificate, so the certification is a standing condition of the credential rather than an optional extra. Separately, a nurse-midwife who holds prescriptive authority owes twenty board acceptable continuing education contact hours every two years in pharmacotherapeutics under 40-33-34(E)(3), two of which must relate to prescribing controlled substances if the nurse-midwife holds controlled substance prescriptive authority. The statute does not say whether those twenty pharmacotherapeutics hours may also be counted toward the thirty hour competency option, so a prescribing nurse-midwife should assume they are separate unless the board says otherwise. The forty five pharmacotherapeutics contact hours with at least fifteen hours in controlled substances that appear in 40-33-34(E)(1) are an entry requirement for the initial grant of prescriptive authority within the two years before application, not a renewal requirement, and are not recorded here.

Required CE topics for South Carolina certified nurse-midwifes

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 South Carolina CNM need to renew?

South Carolina nurse-midwives must complete 30 contact hours of continuing education every two years to renew their license with the South Carolina Board of Nursing (South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation). South Carolina writes one continued competency requirement for renewal of an active nursing license and lets the licensee satisfy it by any one of four routes. S.C. Code 40-33-40(B)(1) requires documented evidence during the licensure period of at least one of: completion of thirty contact hours from a continuing education provider recognized by the board, maintenance of certification or recertification by a national certifying body recognized by the board, completion of an academic program of study in nursing or a related field recognized by the board, or verification of competency and the number of hours practiced as evidenced by employer certification. The thirty hour figure recorded here is the continuing education route; the other three are recorded as alternatives. This is not a stack on top of a separate registered nurse figure: South Carolina states one competency requirement in 40-33-40 that reaches every nurse renewing an active license, and the statute states no additional flat hour total for the advanced practice license. Most nurse-midwives satisfy it through the certification route, because 40-33-20(18) defines a certified nurse-midwife as an advanced practice registered nurse who maintains an American Midwifery Certification Board certificate, so the certification is a standing condition of the credential rather than an optional extra. Separately, a nurse-midwife who holds prescriptive authority owes twenty board acceptable continuing education contact hours every two years in pharmacotherapeutics under 40-33-34(E)(3), two of which must relate to prescribing controlled substances if the nurse-midwife holds controlled substance prescriptive authority. The statute does not say whether those twenty pharmacotherapeutics hours may also be counted toward the thirty hour competency option, so a prescribing nurse-midwife should assume they are separate unless the board says otherwise. The forty five pharmacotherapeutics contact hours with at least fifteen hours in controlled substances that appear in 40-33-34(E)(1) are an entry requirement for the initial grant of prescriptive authority within the two years before application, not a renewal requirement, and are not recorded here.

How often does a South Carolina CNM license need to be renewed?

Certified Nurse-Midwife licenses in South Carolina renew every two years. Nursing licenses, including advanced practice registered nurse licensure, renew biennially and expire April 30 of even numbered years. The board's renewals page shows the most recent window opening February 1, 2026 and closing April 30, 2026, with licenses renewed then expiring April 30, 2028. A renewal submitted after April 30 is subject to reinstatement requirements and additional fees, and after May 31 the online portal closes and a paper reinstatement application with a new background check is required.

What specific CE topics are required for South Carolina nurse-midwives?

Continuing education in pharmacotherapeutics: 20 contact hours every renewal cycle (certified nurse-midwives who hold prescriptive authority). Prescribing controlled substances: 2 contact hours every renewal cycle (certified nurse-midwives who hold controlled substance prescriptive authority). Citations: continuing education in pharmacotherapeutics (S.C. Code Ann. 40-33-34(E)(3)) and prescribing controlled substances (S.C. Code Ann. 40-33-34(E)(3)).

Do South Carolina nurse-midwives have to submit CE certificates at renewal?

Licensees attest to completion at renewal rather than submitting certificates, the board audits a sample of renewals and asks for documentation, and records must be kept for 4 years. Continuing education hours used for the thirty hour route must come from a continuing education provider recognized by the board, the pharmacotherapeutics hours must be acceptable to the board, and certification used for the certification route must come from a national certifying body recognized by the board. The board tracks nursing continuing education through CE Broker.

Sources

Last verified September 10, 2026. Every value above was read from one of these.

• S.C. Code of Laws Title 40, Chapter 33, Nurses (Sections 40-33-20, 40-33-34, 40-33-38 and 40-33-40)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 10, 2026
• Renewals, South Carolina Board of NursingState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• Continuing Education, South Carolina Board of NursingState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• Midwifery Licensing, South Carolina Department of Public Health (licensed direct-entry midwives, a separate credential from the certified nurse-midwife)State board page, accessed September 10, 2026

The regulator is the Board of Nursing and the pattern is the common one: the nurse-midwife holds an advanced practice registered nurse license with a nurse-midwife role. South Carolina does have a distinct CNM credential. The rule read here is established as governing the nurse-midwife rather than another kind of midwife by the statutory definition itself: S.C. Code 40-33-20(5) states that the categories of APRN are nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife, clinical nurse specialist, and certified registered nurse anesthetist, and 40-33-20(18) defines a certified nurse-midwife as an advanced practice registered nurse who holds a master's degree in the specialty area and maintains an American Midwifery Certification Board certificate. South Carolina separately licenses direct-entry midwives, called licensed midwives, through the Department of Public Health under Regulation 61-24 on a two year renewal with its own continuing education; that credential is not this one and none of its figures are recorded here. AMCB certification is both a standing condition of the South Carolina CNM credential under 40-33-20(18) and, through 40-33-40(B)(1), one of the four routes that satisfies continued competency in place of the thirty hours. The topic keys pharmacology and controlled_substances are not on the canonical list and are used because the statute writes the requirement as pharmacotherapeutics generally and as controlled substance prescribing rather than opioids specifically. The board's own continuing education page states its hour detail only inside PDFs, including Competency Requirement for Licensure and an FAQ for Nurses Continuing Education, which were not opened under the no download rule, so the hour counts here come from the statute, which states them plainly. Retention of four years, the five business day production window and the random audit come from 40-33-40(D). No first renewal exemption, carryover rule or self study cap for nursing continuing education was found in the sources read. Compared with the existing South Carolina records, this one agrees with sc-np on cycle, basis and the thirty hour figure, and it differs from sc-crna in exactly the way the statute does: 40-33-34(E)(1) names the NP, CNM, and CNS as the licensees who may hold prescriptive authority and therefore owe the twenty pharmacotherapeutics hours, and the nurse anesthetist is not in that list.