State mandate · Michigan
Michigan wants 2 hours of pain and symptom management CE, every renewal
If you renew an RN or LPN license in Michigan, not less than 2 of your 25 required hours must be continuing education in pain and pain symptom management — in each renewal period, not once in a career.
What follows is the rule itself, quoted and cited, and a plain statement of where our own acceptance status stands. We would rather you read both before you spend anything.
The rule, quoted
What Mich. Admin. Code R 338.10601(2) actually says
Most sites in this market summarize the requirement. Here is the sentence, so you can check our reading of it against your own.
“not less than 2 hours of the 25 required hours, of continuing education in pain and pain symptom management in each renewal period”
Mich. Admin. Code R 338.10601(2). History line 2024 MR 9, effective 8 May 2024 — current, recently amended, and applying to registered nurses and licensed practical nurses alike.
Three phrases do the work
- “Not less than 2 hours” — a floor, not a ceiling. Two is the minimum; more pain hours are not a problem.
- “Of the 25 required hours” — the two come out of your twenty-five. They are not an extra two hours bolted on top.
- “In each renewal period” — every cycle, for as long as you hold the license. This is not a one-time requirement you can clear and forget.
The subject matter the rule names itself
R 338.10601(2) does not leave the topic open. It lists qualifying content, and it says the list “may include, but is not limited to” — so the seven below are named examples, not the complete set:
- Behavior management
- Psychology of pain
- Pharmacology
- Behavior modification
- Stress management
- Clinical applications
- Drug interventions
Where the hours may come from
Michigan does not require that the approval be Michigan’s
Under R 338.10602(2)(a), a program is approved if it is offered for continuing education credit by “another state or provincial board of nursing.”
That single clause is why nurses renewing in Michigan are not restricted to Michigan-specific providers. It is also why the question worth asking about any online CE course is not “is this a Michigan course?” but “whose approval does it carry, and for what content?”
Every course we sell states its own continuing-education position on its own page, and that statement applies only to the course it appears on. Read it there, against the rule quoted above, before you buy.
Two questions, asked separately
Where did it come from? R 338.10602(2) — the approving body.
What is it about? R 338.10601(2) — the subject matter, for the two pain hours specifically.
Keep your paperwork
Michigan CE is audited after the fact. Whatever you complete, keep the certificate, the hours and the course description — the description is what shows an auditor which of the rule’s named subjects the course actually covered.
Acceptance status
What we will not tell you
We know of no board that has ruled that a course teaching clinical hypnosis techniques for pain and symptom management counts toward this requirement. Until we hold written confirmation from the Michigan Board of Nursing, we will not tell you our module counts toward your two hours — and we would be careful of anyone who tells you theirs does.
Not yet confirmed in writing by the Michigan Board of Nursing.
When written confirmation exists, this line is replaced by what the Board actually said. If the answer is no, this page will say that too.
The module
A two-hour module, in preparation
A two-hour module written against the subject matter the rule names for itself — psychology of pain, behavior modification, stress management and clinical applications — and framed as clinical nursing practice rather than as wellness, because R 338.10602 asks for that.
The module is in preparation and not on sale. To hear when this changes, email support@mycecredit.com. The courses on sale today are on the RN & LPN list.
The other twenty-three
Two hours are pinned to a subject. Implicit bias has its own rule.
Michigan asks for 25 contact hours across a two-year renewal cycle. The pain and symptom management rule fixes two of them to a topic. The remaining hours carry no subject requirement under that rule — though R 338.10602 still asks that they relate to the practice of nursing. Michigan also requires implicit-bias training under a separate rule.
One course at a time
The RN and LPN lane holds recorded clinical courses — airway, sedation, positioning and pain — each one online, self-paced, with the exam and the certificate included. Every course is sold on its own. Pick the hours you want and stop when you have enough.
Search by the number you need
The catalog filters by hours and by price, so you can see what fits before you buy.
Before you buy anything
Four questions Michigan nurses ask
Does your two-hour module satisfy my Michigan pain hours?
We are not going to tell you that it does, because we do not hold anything in writing that would let us. We know of no board that has ruled on whether a course teaching clinical hypnosis techniques for pain and symptom management counts toward R 338.10601(2).
Not yet confirmed in writing by the Michigan Board of Nursing.
The module is in preparation and not on sale. When it opens, its description will set out what it contains and which of the rule’s named subjects it covers, so that you can make that judgment yourself — and so that you have it on file if you are ever audited.
Does the requirement apply to LPNs, or only to RNs?
Both. R 338.10601(2) applies to registered nurses and to licensed practical nurses in the same terms — the same two hours, out of the same twenty-five, in the same renewal period.
It is routinely written about as though it were an RN rule. If you hold an LPN license in Michigan, it is your rule too.
Is it two hours once, or two hours every time I renew?
Every time. The rule says “in each renewal period” — so the two hours recur for as long as you hold the license, on a two-year cycle. Clearing it once does not clear it for the next cycle.
The history line on the rule is 2024 MR 9, effective 8 May 2024, so this is current language rather than a legacy requirement being phased out.
What subject matter counts as pain and symptom management?
The rule answers this itself. R 338.10601(2) says qualifying content “may include, but is not limited to” behavior management, psychology of pain, pharmacology, behavior modification, stress management, clinical applications and drug interventions. The “not limited to” matters: that is a list of examples, not a closed set.
Separately, R 338.10602 asks that continuing education relate to the practice of nursing, or be a non-clinical subject relevant to it. A pain course written as general wellness rather than as clinical practice is the one that draws questions at audit.
Twenty-five hours, one deadline
Read the rule, keep your certificates, and plan your hours early rather than three days before your renewal date.