Built for nurses who hold more than one license.
If you work at a large hospital system you almost certainly hold a state RN license plus a stack of recurring certifications. Trust holds all of them, with a reminder schedule calibrated to each issuing body.
Coming from NurseGrid? See how the two compare.
What Trust holds for an RN
Add a credential in under a minute. Trust knows the renewal cadence for most state boards and national certifying bodies. Working across state lines? See where your license lets you work.
Compact status, endorsement fees, and temporary permits are collected in where your license lets you work.
State RN license
All 50 states plus DC. Multi-state compact licenses tracked together.
BLS, ACLS, PALS, NRP
American Heart Association cards. 24-month cycles.
Specialty certs
CCRN, CEN, OCN, CMSRN, RNC-OB, and the rest. Tracked through their primary boards.
NIHSS, TNCC, ENPC
Course completions with expiration dates kept on file.
Annual employer requirements
HIPAA refresh, fit testing, TB clearance — kept alongside regulatory credentials.
CE hours toward renewal
Logged manually or imported from accredited provider PDFs.
A schedule that respects how renewals actually work.
Most reminder apps fire at the same intervals for everything. Trust adjusts to the regulator.
If you hold a multistate license
One license, one renewal — and a set of rules that only bite when you cross a border.
Under the Nurse Licensure Compact your license is issued by your primary state of residence and the privilege to practise in other compact states rides along with it. You renew once, with your home board, and you meet that board's continuing education requirement — not the requirement of every state you happen to work a shift in. Trust tracks the single license and its CE clock rather than inventing a renewal per state.
Two things still catch nurses out. The first is a move: changing your primary state of residence means applying by endorsement in the new state, and the old multistate license retires when the new one issues. Trust keeps the outgoing expiration visible until the incoming license is added, so there is no blind gap between the two. The second is a state that has joined the compact but layers its own practice rules — jurisprudence exams, mandatory abuse or human-trafficking hours, or a separate controlled-substance registration — on top of licensure. Those live on the state guide, with a citation.
If you are unsure whether your state is in the compact, or whether a single-state license is limiting you, check your compact status and read the multi-state tracking guide.
What a nurse actually stores, and how often each one expires
Eight clocks, four issuers, no shared calendar. This is the stack Trust is built around.
| Credential | Cycle | Issuer & requirement |
|---|---|---|
| State RN license | 2 years (most states) | Board of nursing · CE varies 0–30 hrs |
| BLS (AHA) | 24 months | AHA training center · no CE requirement |
| ACLS (AHA) | 24 months | AHA training center · renewal course |
| PALS (AHA) | 24 months | AHA training center · renewal course |
| CCRN (AACN) | 3 years | AACN · 100 CERPs or exam |
| CEN (BCEN) | 4 years | BCEN · 100 CE hours or exam |
| OCN (ONCC) | 4 years | ONCC · ILNA points or exam |
| Employer requirements | Annual | Employer · fit test, HIPAA, TB clearance |
Cycles are the common case; a handful of boards and certifying bodies differ. The figure that governs you is the one on your board's guide, each of which carries a visible last-verified date.
State-by-state RN renewal walkthroughs
Nurse renewal questions, answered
How many credentials does a typical RN have to renew?
Four to seven. A state RN license on a two-year cycle, BLS on a 24-month cycle, usually ACLS and often PALS on their own 24-month cycles, one specialty certification on a three-to-five-year cycle, plus employer requirements like fit testing and HIPAA refresh that renew annually. Each has a different issuer, portal, and window — which is why a single calendar reminder rarely survives contact with reality.
Does a compact (multistate) license mean one renewal or several?
One. The licence is issued by your primary state of residence and the multistate privilege travels with it, so you renew with that state and meet its CE requirement. Practising in another compact state does not add a renewal, though that state's practice rules still apply to you while you are there.
What happens to my compact privilege if I move states?
Changing your primary state of residence means applying for licensure by endorsement in the new state; the old multistate licence is retired once the new one issues. Trust keeps the old expiration visible until the new licence is added so you do not fall into a gap between the two.
Do my ACLS and PALS cards count toward my state CE requirement?
Sometimes, partially, and it depends on the board. Several states accept the contact hours attached to an accredited ACLS or PALS course; others exclude anything with a skills-check component. The state guide for your board says which, and cites the rule.
Can Trust tell me how many CE hours I still need?
Yes. Log hours against a credential as you complete them and Trust shows the remaining balance against your board's requirement, including mandatory topic hours where a state has them. Your board's official record still lives in CE Broker or its state equivalent.
Is my licence number safe in Trust?
It stays on your phone, behind your device lock, and is never uploaded to a Trust server. That is also why a lost phone with no encrypted backup means re-adding your credentials — there is no copy of them anywhere else.
Reviewed by the Trust editorial team, with source citations to each state board of nursing
Every renewal cycle, CE requirement, and fee on this page is checked against the issuing board's published rules or the AHA/certifying body's own handbook, with a link to that source on the relevant state guide. Facts are re-verified on a rolling basis and each guide carries its own last-verified date.
Last reviewed February 1, 2026
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