South Carolina Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

South Carolina nurse anesthetists 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.

South Carolina Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist 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 sets one continued competency requirement for renewal of an active license and lets the licensee pick one of four ways to meet it. S.C. Code 40-33-40(B)(1) requires documented evidence of at least one of the following during the licensure period: 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 option; the other three are recorded as alternatives. In practice most nurse anesthetists meet it through the second option, because 40-33-20(19) defines a CRNA as an advanced practice registered nurse certified by a board approved national certifying organization and 40-33-34(A)(2) requires an APRN to hold current specialty certification by a board approved credentialing organization. This is the crucial place where the nurse anesthetist parts company with the nurse practitioner in South Carolina. The twenty hours of pharmacotherapeutics that a prescribing APRN owes under 40-33-34(E)(3), and the two of those twenty that must relate to prescribing controlled substances, are written for a prescriptive authority applicant that 40-33-34(E)(1) identifies as an NP, CNM, or CNS. Nurse anesthetists are not in that list, and 40-33-34(H)(1) states that nothing in the section may be construed to require a CRNA to obtain prescriptive authority to deliver anesthesia care. So a South Carolina nurse anesthetist owes no pharmacotherapeutics hours under the statute, while a nurse practitioner with prescriptive authority owes twenty. Failure to comply with the applicable continued competency requirements results in nonrenewal or denial of the application, and 40-33-40(D) requires a licensee to maintain all documented evidence of compliance for at least four years.

Required CE topics for South Carolina certified registered nurse anesthetists

The South Carolina Board of Nursing (South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation) pages and rules we read do not mandate specific subject areas for this license type. Hours may be in any approved subject.

Documentation and audit

Common questions

How many CE hours does a South Carolina CRNA need to renew?

South Carolina nurse anesthetists 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 sets one continued competency requirement for renewal of an active license and lets the licensee pick one of four ways to meet it. S.C. Code 40-33-40(B)(1) requires documented evidence of at least one of the following during the licensure period: 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 option; the other three are recorded as alternatives. In practice most nurse anesthetists meet it through the second option, because 40-33-20(19) defines a CRNA as an advanced practice registered nurse certified by a board approved national certifying organization and 40-33-34(A)(2) requires an APRN to hold current specialty certification by a board approved credentialing organization. This is the crucial place where the nurse anesthetist parts company with the nurse practitioner in South Carolina. The twenty hours of pharmacotherapeutics that a prescribing APRN owes under 40-33-34(E)(3), and the two of those twenty that must relate to prescribing controlled substances, are written for a prescriptive authority applicant that 40-33-34(E)(1) identifies as an NP, CNM, or CNS. Nurse anesthetists are not in that list, and 40-33-34(H)(1) states that nothing in the section may be construed to require a CRNA to obtain prescriptive authority to deliver anesthesia care. So a South Carolina nurse anesthetist owes no pharmacotherapeutics hours under the statute, while a nurse practitioner with prescriptive authority owes twenty. Failure to comply with the applicable continued competency requirements results in nonrenewal or denial of the application, and 40-33-40(D) requires a licensee to maintain all documented evidence of compliance for at least four years.

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

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist 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.

Does South Carolina require specific CE topics for nurse anesthetists?

The South Carolina Board of Nursing (South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation) does not list mandated subject areas for CRNA renewal on the pages we verified; the 30 contact hours may be in any approved subject.

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

Licensees attest to completion at renewal rather than submitting certificates and records must be kept for 4 years. Continuing education hours used for the thirty hour option must come from a continuing education provider recognized by the board, and certification used for the certification option must come from a national certifying body recognized by the board.

Sources

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

• S.C. Code of Laws Title 40 Chapter 33, Nurses (Nurse Practice Act)Statute or administrative rule, accessed September 8, 2026
• Renewals, South Carolina Board of NursingState board page, accessed September 8, 2026
• Continuing Education, South Carolina Board of NursingState board page, accessed September 8, 2026

South Carolina recognizes the nurse anesthetist as one of the advanced practice registered nurse roles rather than issuing a separate credential: 40-33-20(19) defines the CRNA as an advanced practice registered nurse who completed an accredited CRNA program at a minimum of the master's level and is certified by a board approved national certifying organization. The renewal cycle and the continued competency options were both read in the statute on the South Carolina Statehouse site, and the April 30 even year dates were read on the board's own renewals page, so both core values sit on official hosts. The mandatory topics array is empty because the statute imposes no subject specific continuing education on a nurse anesthetist. That is the deliberate finding here rather than a gap: the pharmacotherapeutics and controlled substance hours that sc-np carries flow from the prescriptive authority provision in 40-33-34(E), whose opening language is limited to an NP, CNM, or CNS, and 40-33-34(H)(1) states that a CRNA is not required to obtain prescriptive authority to deliver anesthesia care. A nurse anesthetist who nevertheless holds some other prescribing credential should confirm the point with the board. The statute is silent on whether the board audits continued competency, so audited is left null; the four year retention in 40-33-40(D) was read directly. The board's continuing education page was fetched and returned only links to PDF documents, including the Competency Requirement for Licensure and the continuing education FAQ, so no value was taken from it and the PDFs were not opened. 40-33-34(H)(2) and (3) add a nurse anesthetist specific practice obligation that is not a continuing education item but is worth knowing at renewal time: a CRNA practices under approved written guidelines developed with the supervising physician or dentist or with the facility medical staff, the guidelines are reviewed at least annually and signed, they must be produced to the board within seventy two hours of a request, and the board audits them at least biennially.