Nursing CE by state · Iowa
Iowa nursing CE: what the board asks for
Iowa nurses complete 36 contact hours each three-year license period. Since 4 June 2025 Iowa has no provider-approval requirement; a course qualifies on its subject matter.
Who may approve your CE
What Iowa’s rule says
“619.2(1) Requirements. License renewal requires the verifiable completion of 36 contact hours or 3.6 CEUs of credit or an exemption within the renewal period.”
481 IAC 619.2(1)-(5), (7)(b) (ARC 9162C, IAB 4/30/25, eff. 6/4/25); Iowa DIAL nursing continuing education page · Read the rule at the source
The requirement
RNs: 36 contact hours
LPNs: 36 contact hours
Cycle: Every 3 years
Iowa Board of Nursing (Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)
Read this before you count our hours
What to know in Iowa
- Iowa counts a contact hour as 60 minutes, so a 50-minute hour counts for less.
- Mandatory-reporter training on child and dependent-adult abuse comes from Iowa HHS, not from any CE provider.
- Up to 18 hours may carry over. Nurses living outside Iowa who hold an active license in another state with a CE requirement are exempt.
Before you buy anything
What we will not tell you
We will not tell you that a course satisfies your Iowa requirement. Your board decides that, and an audit lands on your license, not on us.
What we can do is show you the rule, quoted or cited, and linked, and tell you plainly where our courses stand. Each of our RN & LPN course pages states the continuing-education approval that course carries, and that statement applies only to the course it appears on.
If anything here is unclear for your situation, ask your board before you enroll. Keep every certificate and the course description; the description is what shows an auditor what the course covered.
Read the rule yourself
481 IAC 619.2(1)-(5), (7)(b) (ARC 9162C, IAB 4/30/25, eff. 6/4/25)
Iowa Board of Nursing (Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)
When we read it
We read the rule on 29 September 2026. Rules change; the board’s current text governs.
Ready to look at courses?
Read each course page against what your board asks for, then choose.