Free CE for Nurses / Washington
Washington RNs renew every year on their birthday and must complete 8 contact hours of continuing education plus 96 hours of active nursing practice in the preceding 12 months.
✓ Verified against the Washington State Board of Nursing on July 30, 2026
| Topic | Hours | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Health equity | 2 | every year, at every renewal; counts within the 8 |
| Suicide assessment, treatment and management | 6 | one-time, by the end of your first full year of licensure; counts within the 8. CRNAs are exempt. Must come from a Washington DOH Model List program. |
| Telemedicine training | — | one-time, and only for nurses providing clinical services by telemedicine. No hour count is set by statute or rule. |
Washington moved to an annual cycle in June 2021, so the older 24-or-45-hour multi-year figures still circulating online are out of date. Your license expires on your birthday every year, and at each renewal you attest that you completed at least 8 hours of continuing nursing education and at least 96 hours of active nursing practice during the preceding 12 months (WAC 246-840-220). Hours cannot be rolled over from one year to the next. Active nursing practice is defined broadly — paid, unpaid or volunteer work requiring substantial nursing knowledge, judgment and skill, including administrator, quality manager, policy, educator, consultant and regulator roles, not just direct care. Two of your 8 hours must be health equity training every single year; that counts inside the 8, and while the course need not come from a state list it must meet the content standards in WAC 246-12-830, including implicit bias content and either an end-of-course assessment or an attendance attestation. Separately, every RN except those holding an active CRNA license must complete a one-time 6-hour training in suicide assessment, treatment and management by the end of their first full year of licensure; it also counts inside the 8, but it must come from a program on the Washington Department of Health Model List. Nurses who deliver clinical services by telemedicine must additionally complete training under RCW 43.70.495 and retain a signed attestation. Nurses enrolled in an advanced nursing education program are exempt from continuing competency for that review period. Note that the 30 CE hours plus 15 pharmacology hours often cited for Washington apply to ARNPs on a two-year cycle, not to RNs.
Yes — Washington accepts continuing education from nationally accredited providers, so courses from an accredited provider like the ones on Pulse count toward your renewal.
One caveat: Washington requires no formal accreditation for general CE — the Board of Nursing states that the laws and rules do not require continuing education hours to have formal CEUs or CNEs, so accredited coursework qualifies but is not mandatory. The exception is the one-time 6-hour suicide prevention training, which must come from a program on the Washington DOH Model List; national accreditation alone does not satisfy that one.
Washington State Board of Nursing
https://nursing.wa.gov/licensing/maintain-license/continuing-competency
Requirements change. Confirm all figures on the board site above before relying on them.
Pulse offers free, accredited CE for RNs and LPNs. Local healthcare organizations cover the cost — you pay nothing, and the hours apply toward your Washington requirement (subject to the board rules above).
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