As a traveling nurse practitioner for the past 6 years, I have obtained 12 state licenses. It can be challenging to keep up with renewals and CEU requirements for each state, since they frequently vary.
I typically allow a license to expire when I am no longer working in that state. Of course, I keep my home state license active – which is Florida. Fortunately, the process for renewing expired state licenses isn’t that complicated. It just requires a renewal application and for you to pay the renewal fee. The renewal fee is often a bit more expensive after letting a license expire, compared to renewing it when it has not yet expired.
I believe renewing expired medical doctor licenses is much more complicated than for us nurse practitioners. Trying to renew a nurse practitioner license after it expires is often a quick process. I have had my license changed to active within minutes of submitting my application and the renewal fees.
My current active state licenses are: Florida, California, Arizona, Ohio, and Virginia.
My current inactive state licenses are: Washington, Colorado, Maine, Wisconsin, Texas, Kentucky, and Illinois.
Some of those inactive licenses I haven’t even used. But instead of continuing to renew them and waiting for an assignment, it just makes more sense to renew them after I have secured an assignment in that state. That way, I don’t have to waste hundreds of dollars on licenses I may not even use every couple of years.
Before renewing a license, I always double check the CEU requirements to make sure mine are up to date. I try to have 75 CEUs of pharmacology done within the past 2 years, at all times. This is because a lot of states require this upon licensure application. So, it makes it quicker to complete my new applications by having this ready.
Otherwise, I keep an excel document with all of my state licenses. This document lists expiration dates, CEU requirements, and alternative licenses needed (such as a furnishing license). I also list if the state requires a separate RN license application, or if they just use my multistate practice RN license from Florida (through the eNLC compact state agreement).
