Last updated: October 14, 2026. Originally published May 20, 2024.
Continuing education rules are set by each board and change. The examples below are starting points, not a compliance opinion. Confirm the hour total, the topics, and the renewal date on your board’s site before you count a course. This is not legal advice.
Nursing CEUs are easy to lose because the evidence lives in email, and the rule lives on a board page you do not open until the renewal window. A useful tracker records the course, the hours, the topic, and the file name of the certificate in the same row, against the requirement you actually have to meet.
Download the nursing CEU tracker spreadsheet (CSV, opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers). It includes one example row for North Dakota prescriptive-authority pharmacology. Replace that row. Do not file the example as if it were your course.
If you would rather not keep the sheet yourself, Self-Service Tracking is $35 per month and includes CEU tracking, expiration alerts, and renewal reminders. It does not prepare a license application. The rest of the catalog is on services.
What to log on every course
Boards audit certificates, not good intentions. For each course, record:
- the state and the license the hours apply to (RN and APRN rules are often different),
- the renewal cycle those hours must fall in,
- the board’s hour total and any required topic (pharmacology, pain, cultural competency, controlled substances),
- completion date, provider, course title, and hours,
- the approval or accreditation number printed on the certificate,
- the file name of the certificate you saved.
Log the course the day you finish it. If a certificate is missing, request a duplicate from the provider before attesting to completion. Keep the provider’s response and any other evidence the board accepts.
Some boards want contact hours. Some rules are written in CEUs (one CEU is often 10 contact hours, but read the board’s definition). Do not convert units unless the board tells you the ratio.
Match the row to the rule, not to a national average
There is no single nursing CE number for the United States. These are examples we could confirm, with the limit of each source stated. Hour-by-hour APRN notes, including pharmacology, are in APRN CE requirements by state. Renewal timing for a wider set of states is in nursing license renewal by state.
North Dakota. RNs need 12 contact hours every two years. An APRN with prescriptive authority needs 15 hours of pharmacotherapy in that same two-year cycle. Those pharmacology hours may also satisfy the RN requirement. The certificate has to itemize pharmacology. The board says UpToDate certificates do not meet the pharmacology-specific requirement, and you should keep certificates for at least two cycles. The initial prescriptive-authority application is a different rule (hours in the past three years). Do not mix the initial application with the renewal log.
Georgia. The competency rule gives more than one way to qualify for the biennium, including 30 hours of continuing education, or national certification, or other options the rule lists (an academic program, or employer competency plus practice hours). Pick the option you will actually use and log only that evidence. The Georgia RN renewal guide is the on-site checklist. Recheck Rule 410-13-.01 before you rely on a course list from a vendor.
Nevada. The board’s cycle includes 30 hours of nursing-related CE, of which 4 hours are cultural competency (those 4 count inside the 30, not on top), plus a one-time 4-hour bioterrorism course. APRNs have an additional 15 hours per cycle. The first biennium after graduation is exempt from the 30-hour requirement, not from bioterrorism or cultural competency. The renewal guide links to the Board’s currently posted fee schedule and distinguishes RN/LPN fees from APRN fees.
Arizona. RN renewal is tied to a four-year cycle ending April 1, with a practice-hour or education menu rather than a simple contact-hour total. APRNs renew national certification and APRN practice hours on their own rule, and a DEA holder has a separate opioid-related education duty under Arizona statute. Use the Arizona NP renewal guide and the board’s current instructions together.
Connecticut. APRNs have a published contact-hour requirement: 50 hours every 24 months, including at least 5 in pharmacotherapeutics, plus the topic hours the Department of Public Health lists. For actively practicing RNs and LPNs, DPH separately requires two contact hours on specified mental-health topics and suicide prevention at the first renewal after January 1, 2022, and every six years thereafter. Track that six-year deadline separately from annual license renewal. Use the Connecticut RN renewal guide and the department’s current CE page. The license guide is Connecticut nursing license.
Michigan, Rhode Island, Kansas, and New Hampshire. The renewal guide now links directly to state sources: Michigan requires 25 hours over two years, Rhode Island 10 over two years, Kansas 30 per renewal period, and New Hampshire’s RN checklist 30 over two years plus a practice requirement or listed alternative. Required topics and first-renewal exceptions matter as much as the totals.
State look-ups for the requirement you are renewing against live on renewal requirements and continuing education. Use the official source linked for the exact profession and renewal cycle.
A simple way to stay ahead of the deadline
- Write the expiration date and the cycle start at the top of the sheet.
- Write the hour total and each required topic in their own columns before you take a course.
- Save the certificate PDF with a name you can sort:
YYYY-MM-DD-provider-hours.pdf. - Once a quarter, check that completed hours cover the required topics, not only the total.
- Ninety days before expiration, compare the evidence against each requirement and schedule any missing education while there is still time.
Courses from a provider your board does not accept, hours from a prior cycle, and the same course counted twice are the usual reasons a log looks finished and still fails. When a state caps independent study or excludes a product (North Dakota’s note on UpToDate is one example), put that exclusion in the Notes column so you do not “re-discover” it in March.
Example: record one course without overstating the credit
Suppose a certificate awards 3 contact hours, including 1 pharmacology hour. Record three in the total-hours field and one in the pharmacology field. Do not count four total hours, and do not label all three as pharmacology. If the same course qualifies for both a state renewal and national certification, link the same certificate to both requirements while preserving each authority’s cycle and acceptance rules.
A useful quarterly check has three passes:
- Evidence: every claimed activity has a certificate or another accepted record.
- Eligibility: provider, topic, delivery method, and completion date qualify.
- Totals: general hours and each required topic meet their own minimum without duplicate entries.
Keep certificates for the longest applicable retention period when several credentials use the same course. For example, Iowa and Michigan currently specify four-year retention; North Dakota asks for at least two renewal cycles. A paid tracking subscription does not decide whether a board will accept a course.
Tracking inside a licensing plan
The spreadsheet is enough if you have one license and you will open the file. Self-Service Tracking at $35 per month is the published plan that includes CEU tracking, license and expiration tracking, and renewal reminders, for any healthcare professional on the catalog. It does not include application checklists or someone preparing the renewal for you.
If you want the renewal filed with support, that is a different product: license and certification renewal support is $100 per renewal, and Maintenance and Renewal is $275 per month for ongoing credential support. Those fees are service fees. The board’s renewal fee is extra. Details and the feature matrix are on services and in the cost guide.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the free CEU template?
Download the CSV. The first data row is an example for North Dakota. Delete it or overwrite it before you add your courses.
Do RN hours and NP hours go on the same row?
Only when the board says one set of hours satisfies both licenses, as North Dakota does for pharmacology hours that also meet the RN total. Otherwise keep a row per license. APRN pharmacology and controlled-substance topics are covered in the APRN CE article.
Does Convenient Licensing charge $35 to track CE?
Self-Service Tracking is $35 per month. CEU tracking is one of the features in that plan, along with expiration alerts and renewal reminders. It is a subscription for the portal, not a per-course fee.
What if I cannot prove the hours?
Assume they do not count until you have the certificate. Order a duplicate from the provider before the renewal window, and keep copies for as many cycles as your board requires.
Sources
- North Dakota Board of Nursing CE and APRN FAQs, including itemized pharmacology and record retention.
- Georgia continuing competency rules.
- Nevada Board of Nursing CE.
- Arizona Board of Nursing renewal.
- Connecticut DPH APRN CE and RN/LPN CE.
- Michigan LARA nursing guides and FAQs.
- Iowa DIAL continuing education.
- Convenient Licensing services and feature comparison.