Ohio RNs and APRNs must renew their licenses not later than October 31, 2019 to continue to practice nursing in Ohio.

The Ohio Board of Nursing’s website indicates that 213,527 licenses have been renewed.

Ohio RNs and APRNs should not delay renewing! If you are an Ohio RN or APRN and you do not renew by October 31, 2019, your license will lapse and you cannot work as a nurse on a lapsed license. Applying for reinstatement of your license is required which takes additional time to process. Working as a nurse on a lapsed license is also disciplinable offense.

Ohio APRNs must renew BOTH their RN and APRN licenses. These are two separate applications and both applications must be completed.

The Renewal Application includes, but is not limited to, questions concerning criminal, licensure, mental health, and alcohol/drugs matters. All information provided in the Renewal Application is required to be true and accurate. Depending on the response given to certain questions in the Renewal Application, uploading an explanation and Certified copies of certain specific documents is also required.

In certain cases, the Renewal Application may be forwarded to the Ohio Board of Nursing Compliance Unit for review and an Ohio Board of Nursing investigator may contact the nurse to obtain additional information. In other cases, a Consent Agreement may be offered to the nurse to resolve a disciplinable offense instead of preceding to an administrative hearing. If you do not understand a question in your Renewal Application, or do not know what additional information to upload with your Renewal Application, it is recommended to obtain experienced legal counsel to assist you before submitting your Renewal Application, speaking with an Ohio Board of Nursing investigator, or signing a Consent Agreement.

As always, if you have a question about this post or the Ohio Board of Nursing in general, please feel free to contact Todd Collis at (614) 628-6962 or todd.collis@dinsmore.com or Beth Collis at (614) 628-6945 or beth.collis@dinsmore.com.