Legislative/Regulatory

Requirements for APRNs Adding a New Specialty and National Certification

An Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) who wishes to add a new area of specialty and national certification must meet initial requirements for advanced practice licensure, as identified in the Oklahoma Board of Nursing Rules: 485:10-15-4(a). If you are currently a licensed Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and you want to add a new area of specialty, you will access or create an individual account through the Nurse Portal https://okbn.boardsofnursing.org/okbn. All licensure requests are submitted through the Nurse Portal. For additional information, you may review the application instructions located on the Oklahoma Board of Nursing website http://nursing.ok.gov/practice.pdf and the list of APRN Certification Examinations Approved by the Oklahoma Board of Nursing http://nursing.ok.gov/prac-natlcert.pdf to ensure your certification is listed. An APRN in accordance with the Oklahoma Nursing Practice Act, may prescribe medications that are within their scope of practice. The APRN must hold prescriptive authority recognition for each added advanced practice certification in order to prescribe medications and other medical supplies.

Renewal Reminders for APRNs Wanting to Renew Prescriptive Authority

The application for renewal of prescriptive authority is concurrent with the two-year (even years) RN and APRN licensure renewals. In preparing for prescriptive authority recognition renewal in 2020, please note the following reminders. During your 90-day renewal period, per the Oklahoma Nursing Practice Act and Rules, all Certified Nurse Practitioners (CNPs), Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs) and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) must submit for all current supervising physicians, a new Agreement for Physician Supervising Advanced Practice Prescriptive Authority accessible at http://nursing.ok.gov/pa-1.pdf. The Agreement(s) for current physicians may be submitted in person, by mail, fax or as a scanned document to obnwebmaster@nursing.ok.gov. Changes in supervising physicians shall be filed with the Board within 30 days of the change. A Change in Supervising Physicians request form, accessible at http://nursing.ok.gov/pa-2.pdf), and fee must be submitted to the Board via mail or in-person along with the fee. Both Agreements (for supervising physicians) and Change Requests must be received in the Board Office prior to the expiration date of your APRN license and prescriptive authority recognition. The minimal education requirements for renewal of prescriptive authority are a minimum of 15 contact hours or one academic hour of education in pharmacotherapeutics, AND 2 hours of education in pain management, or opioid use or addiction for those APRNs who hold a federal Drug Enforcement Administration registration number