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Arkansas CME requirements
Continuing medical education and license renewal rules for clinicians licensed in Arkansas, as recorded by MedLicense for planning.
Planning aid only. MedLicense is not legal or compliance advice. Boards change rules between cycles, so confirm every requirement with the board before you rely on it.
- Licensing board
- Arkansas State Medical Board
- License renewal
- Every 1 year
MD CME requirements
Reviewed 2026-10-31 This entry was last reviewed on 2026-10-31. That date records our own review and is not a board approval. Some details below are marked for confirmation, so treat those as unverified until the board confirms them. Always confirm with the board before you rely on it.
- Total hours
- 20 hours every year, with at least 20 in Category 1 or the equivalent
- License renewal
- Every 1 year
Required topics
| Topic | Hours | How often | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opioid & controlled-substance prescribing | 1 | Every cycle | DEA registrants | Controlled-substance/opioid prescribing for CS prescribers; hours to be confirmed |
Notes. Annual renewal, 20 Category 1 hours per year. Opioid/controlled-substance topic hours not fully certain.
DO CME requirements
Not yet verified Not yet verified, confirm with the board. This entry has not been checked against the board’s own published rules.
- Total hours
- 20 hours every year, with at least 20 in Category 1 or the equivalent
- License renewal
- Every 1 year
Required topics
| Topic | Hours | How often | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opioid & controlled-substance prescribing | 1 | Every cycle | DEA registrants | Controlled-substance/opioid prescribing for CS prescribers; hours to be confirmed |
Notes. Copied from the MD block as a planning default; the osteopathic rules were not separately confirmed. Confirm with the board.
NP CME requirements
Reviewed 2026-11-01 This entry was last reviewed on 2026-11-01. That date records our own review and is not a board approval. Always confirm with the board before you rely on it.
- Total hours
- 15 hours every 2 years
- License renewal
- Every 1 year
Required topics
| Topic | Hours | How often | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pharmacology | 5 | Every cycle | Everyone | Pharmacotherapeutics contact hours in area of certification, required of APRNs with prescriptive authority, in addition to the 15 hours |
Notes. 15 contact hours of accredited practice-focused activity, OR current national certification/recertification, OR a college nursing course (grade C or better), before each biennial renewal. Extra hours do not carry over. Opioid or other topics are not mentioned on the page.
PA CME requirements
Reviewed 2026-11-01 This entry was last reviewed on 2026-11-01. That date records our own review and is not a board approval. Some details below are marked for confirmation, so treat those as unverified until the board confirms them. Always confirm with the board before you rely on it.
- Total hours
- 20 hours every year
- License renewal
- Every 1 year
Required topics
| Topic | Hours | How often | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opioid & controlled-substance prescribing | 1 | Every cycle | Everyone | One hour each year on prescribing opioids and benzodiazepines, counted within the 20 hours |
Notes. Arkansas Rule 24 (Rules Governing Physician Assistants) section 10: an active-license PA completes 20 credit hours of CME per year, certified by signature at renewal, records kept 3 years. Regulation 17 as amended adds the 1-hour opioid/benzodiazepine prescribing requirement for physicians and PAs within the 20 hours. A PA authorized to prescribe hydrocodone combination products (Schedule II since 2014) must also complete a one-time 5 hours in pain management. Read on Cornell LII (Arkansas Administrative Code, Agency 060), which may lag the board; confirm current text with the board.
CRNA CME requirements
Reviewed 2026-11-01 This entry was last reviewed on 2026-11-01. That date records our own review and is not a board approval. Some details below are marked for confirmation, so treat those as unverified until the board confirms them. Always confirm with the board before you rely on it.
- Total hours
- Not recorded every 2 years
- License renewal
- Every 1 year
Required topics
| Topic | Hours | How often | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pharmacology | 5 | Every cycle | Everyone | Five contact hours of pharmacotherapeutics each biennium, two of them on professional boundaries and APRN prescribing rules; applies only to APRNs with prescriptive authority, which CRNAs are not required to hold |
Notes. Arkansas ASBN APRN rules (Chapter 4, section F renewals): renewal requires proof of current national certification maintenance and an unencumbered RN license; CE submitted to the certifying body for recertification is accepted as meeting the statutory CE requirement. The only state-specified hours are the 5 pharmacotherapeutics hours for APRNs with prescriptive authority (CRNAs need not have prescriptive authority). Board APRN renewal page (healthy.arkansas.gov) confirms the 5-hour rule today; the Cornell LII copy of the rule is older. A board checklist is also reported to cite 15 CE hours or national certification, which was not readable here.
CAA CME requirements
Not yet verified Not yet verified, confirm with the board. This entry has not been checked against the board’s own published rules.
- Total hours
- Not recorded, and the renewal cycle is not recorded
- License renewal
- Every 1 year
Required topics
No mandated topics are recorded for this profession in this state. That is not the same as the board having none, so confirm with the board.
Notes. Secondary source; confirm with the board. Arkansas is not among the states or jurisdictions where anesthesiologist assistants work in the CU Anschutz AA program list (Alabama, Colorado, DC, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin; delegation in Michigan, New Hampshire, Texas, West Virginia). No Arkansas board licensing pathway was found.
Plan this renewal
Use the free opioid CME planner to see the controlled-substance rules for Arkansas next to other states, or the license cost calculator to estimate fees. Read how multi-state CME works if you hold more than one license.
Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse anesthetists and anesthesiologist assistants usually also maintain national certification, which has its own cycle. The recertification basics guide explains how that fits alongside state rules.
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