Arkansas State Board of Nursing Rules and Regulations

The Arkansas State Board of Nursing rules and regulations, issued under the Arkansas Nurse Practice Act, control every stage of a nursing career in the state: who gets licensed, what each license level is allowed to do, how licenses are renewed, and how the Board disciplines nurses who step outside the rules.¹ The rules apply to LPNs, RNs, and APRNs, and they interact with a separate set of multistate requirements because Arkansas is a Nurse Licensure Compact state.

Getting and Keeping an Arkansas License

Initial Licensure

An Arkansas nursing license requires graduation from an approved program and a passing NCLEX score. RN applicants complete an associate, bachelor’s, or diploma program; LPN applicants complete a state-approved practical nursing program.² Every applicant submits fingerprints for state and federal criminal background checks.

Arkansas Code 17-3-102 lists offenses that automatically bar a professional license, including murder, kidnapping, robbery, sexual assault, abuse of an endangered or incompetent person, and certain drug-related crimes.³ A conviction for any listed offense blocks licensure unless the record has been sealed, pardoned, or expunged, or the Board grants a waiver.⁴

Biennial Renewal

Arkansas licenses run on a staggered two-year cycle tied to your birth month. Renewal happens through the Arkansas Nurse Portal by the last day of your birth month, and the fee is approximately $100.⁵ You must declare a primary state of residence in the application; if another compact state is your primary residence and you already hold an active multistate license there, Arkansas will not renew the license.⁶

Missing the deadline does not force you to reapply from scratch, but it does add a late fee to the standard renewal fee. All fees are nonrefundable, and continuing education must be complete before the renewal will process.

Reinstating a Lapsed License

If your license has been inactive five years or less, reinstatement runs through the standard renewal application with late fees and proof of continuing education. Lapses longer than five years require more. You must document at least 20 practice-focused contact hours from a recognized continuing education body within the last two years, or provide proof of national certification or recertification, or complete an academic nursing course.⁶

On top of that, you must satisfy one of three practice requirements:

At least 1,000 hours of nursing practice within the two years before your application, verified by an employer.
Completion of an ASBN-approved refresher course within one year of the application date.
Graduation from an approved nursing education program within one year of the application date.

The application is not considered complete until the ASBN has received all documentation and fees.⁶

The Compact License and Primary Residence

Arkansas joined the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact on January 19, 2018. A nurse who declares Arkansas as a primary state of residence and meets the uniform licensure requirements can hold a multistate license that authorizes practice in any other NLC member state without a separate license.⁷

Primary state of residence means your fixed, permanent principal home. Move to another compact state and you must apply for licensure there, the same way you would replace a driver’s license. If you don’t meet the compact’s uniform requirements, you may still qualify for a single-state Arkansas license.⁷

Discipline follows the license. Revocation of a multistate license in any state ends the privilege to practice across the compact, though a single-state license may still be available under a particular state’s laws.

Scope of Practice by License Level

The Nurse Practice Act draws hard lines around what each level can do. Crossing them is a violation and grounds for Board action.

LPNs

Licensed practical nurses work under the direction of an RN, APRN, licensed physician, or licensed dentist. LPN duties involve tasks that don’t require RN-level specialized judgment: basic patient assessments, most medication administration, and certain IV therapy tasks after specific training. Findings go to the supervising professional.⁸

RNs

Registered nurse practice involves substantial specialized judgment drawn from biological, physical, and social sciences. RNs own the full nursing process: assessment, care planning, intervention, and evaluation. They also supervise other nursing personnel and delegate tasks under the rules below.

APRNs

Advanced practice registered nurses hold an expanded scope based on graduate education, national certification, and demonstrated competence. Arkansas recognizes four APRN roles: certified nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse-midwives, and clinical nurse specialists. Prescriptive authority and independent practice are governed by a separate set of rules covered below.

Delegation to Unlicensed Personnel

When you delegate a task to an unlicensed person, you keep the legal responsibility for the patient and the outcome. Arkansas rules require you to assess the patient’s needs before delegating and to confirm the unlicensed person is competent. Written procedures must exist for every delegated task, and the delegating nurse must document competency.⁹ You also must be readily available in person or by phone while the task is being performed.

Certain tasks can never be delegated to unlicensed personnel:

Nursing assessments, whether physical, psychological, or social, that require nursing judgment.
Formulating the nursing care plan or evaluating the patient’s response.
Administering medications or IV therapy, including blood products, except where a certified medication assistant is specifically authorized.
Receiving or transmitting verbal or telephone orders from a prescriber.
Calling prescriptions in to the pharmacy, which APRNs may not delegate to unlicensed staff.

Delegation is where reasonable-sounding shortcuts create discipline files. Having an aide phone in a refill for you is a scope-of-practice violation.⁹

APRN Prescriptive Authority and Independent Practice

An APRN seeking prescriptive authority must enter a collaborative practice agreement with a physician licensed by the Arkansas State Medical Board whose training falls within the APRN’s scope, specialty, or expertise. The ASBN requires its official collaborative practice agreement form, and a terminated agreement must be reported to the Board within seven days.¹⁰

Certified nurse-midwives get a partial exemption. A CNM prescribing only Schedule III through V medications doesn’t need a collaborative agreement, but a CNM prescribing Schedule II controlled substances does.¹⁰

Act 412 of 2021 opened a route to full independent practice for CNPs and CNSs. After 6,240 hours of practice under a board-required collaborative agreement, a CNP or CNS may apply to the Full Independent Practice Credentialing Committee for a certificate that removes the collaborative agreement requirement.¹¹ Once issued, the APRN no longer submits a collaborative practice agreement or quality assurance plan at renewal.¹⁰

Continuing Education

Every LPN, RN, and APRN must meet a continuing competency requirement each biennium. Three routes qualify:

Fifteen contact hours of practice-focused activities from an accredited provider.
A current nationally recognized certification or recertification.
At least one college credit hour in nursing with a grade of C or better.

The ASBN does not dictate specific topics for the general 15 hours, so you can pick subjects relevant to your practice.¹²

APRNs with prescriptive authority owe an extra five contact hours of pharmacotherapeutics education in their certification area each biennium. Two of those five must cover professional boundaries and the prescribing rules and laws that apply to Arkansas APRNs. The ASBN publishes a two-contact-hour course, “Advanced Practice Nursing in Arkansas,” that satisfies that portion.¹³

The ASBN audits continuing education compliance at random.¹² Selected nurses must produce certificates of attendance, transcripts, or similar records. Holding those records for at least five years is sound practice.

Mandatory Reporting

Arkansas nurses are mandatory reporters under the Adult and Long-Term Care Facility Resident Maltreatment Act (Arkansas Code 12-12-1701 through 12-12-1723). If you observe or reasonably suspect that an endangered or impaired person has been subjected to adult maltreatment, you must report immediately to the Adult Maltreatment Hotline at 1-800-482-8049. When the person is a long-term care facility resident, reports also go to local law enforcement and the Office of Long-Term Care.

If you learn of suspected maltreatment while working as a staff member or facility employee, you must notify the person in charge of your facility right away, and that person has until the next business day to file. Knowingly failing to report is criminal: a purposeful failure is a Class B misdemeanor, and failing to report within the required timeframe is a Class C misdemeanor. The failure itself can also support civil liability for any resulting harm.

Grounds for Discipline

The ASBN is the sole authority to deny, suspend, revoke, or limit a nursing license or prescriptive authority certificate. Arkansas Code 17-87-309 lists the grounds:⁴

Fraud in obtaining a license, including practicing without a valid license.
Criminal conviction or gross immorality.
Incompetence due to negligence, habits, or other causes.
Addiction to or habitual intemperate use of drugs or alcohol.
Mental incompetence.
Unprofessional conduct, a broad category that covers practicing outside your defined scope, patient abuse, and diverting medications.
Discipline in another jurisdiction, including revocation, suspension, or probation.
Voluntary surrender of a license in any state without reinstatement.
Repeated NPA violations.

The Board must also refuse to issue, or must revoke, the license of anyone convicted of an offense listed in Arkansas Code 17-3-102 unless the Board grants a waiver.⁴ Failing to comply with an existing Board order, consent agreement, or alternative-to-discipline contract also qualifies as unprofessional conduct under the ASBN rules.¹

The Disciplinary Process

Complaint, Investigation, and Hearing

A case starts when the ASBN receives a written complaint alleging an NPA violation. Staff review it, and if the allegation is within the Board’s jurisdiction, an investigator is assigned. The licensee may be offered a consent agreement to resolve the matter without a formal hearing. Consent agreements carry conditions the nurse must follow, and breaking those conditions is itself grounds for further discipline.¹

If the case moves to formal charges, the Board holds a hearing under the Arkansas Administrative Procedure Act.¹⁴ Every licensee and applicant is entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard. The Board’s available sanctions include:

Letter of reprimand
Probation with conditions
License suspension
License revocation
Civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation, with each day of violation counted as a separate offense

Civil penalties are in addition to any other sanction, so one case can produce both a suspension and monetary penalties.¹

Judicial Review

A nurse who disagrees with a final Board decision can seek judicial review by filing a petition in circuit court within 30 days of receiving the decision. The petition can go to the circuit court of any county where the nurse resides or does business, or to Pulaski County Circuit Court.¹⁵

Filing does not automatically stop the Board’s decision from taking effect. A court can issue a stay, but for disciplinary orders from a healing-arts licensing board, the court can only postpone the effective date after a separate notice and hearing.¹⁵ The 30-day window is firm. Miss it and you generally lose the right to court review.

The Alternative Program (ArNAP)

Arkansas runs a non-disciplinary monitoring program, the Arkansas Nurses Alternative Program, authorized under Arkansas Code 17-87-801 and following. ArNAP is designed for nurses struggling with drug or alcohol use who want to address the problem without the formal disciplinary track. Enrollment is free, though the nurse pays for treatment and drug screening.

Eligibility requires an Arkansas license or eligibility for one, acknowledgment of a drug or alcohol problem, and a voluntary request to participate. Entry can come through self-referral, a referral from an employer, coworker, or family member, or a referral from the Board. The program is abstinence-based and involves ongoing monitoring and compliance requirements.

ArNAP is not available in every case. Nurses who diverted medications for sale, caused patient harm through substance use, or engaged in conduct with a high potential for patient harm are generally excluded and face formal discipline instead. Failing to comply with an ArNAP contract is classified as unprofessional conduct under the ASBN rules, which can bring the formal process back into play.¹

1
Cornell Law School. ASBN Rules, Chapter Seven – Rules of Procedure
2
Cornell Law School. ASBN Rules – General Provisions, Licensure, and Advanced Practice Nursing
3
Arkansas Department of Health. Arkansas Code 17-3-102 – Licensing Restrictions Based on Criminal Records
4
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 17-87-309 – Grounds for Disciplinary Action
5
Arkansas Department of Health. ASBN – Renewal of Arkansas License
6
Arkansas Department of Health. ASBN – RN Renewal Post Expiration Application Information
7
Arkansas Department of Health. ASBN – Compact
8
Cornell Law School. ASBN Rules – General Provisions, Licensure, and Advanced Practice Nursing – Section: The Practice of Nursing
9
Arkansas Department of Health. Arkansas Code of Rules – Delegation of Nursing Tasks
10
Arkansas Department of Health. ASBN Prescriptive Authority Application Checklist
11
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 17-87-314 – Full Independent Practice Authority
12
Arkansas Department of Health. ASBN – Continuing Education
13
Arkansas Department of Health. ASBN – APRN Renewals
14
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 25-15-213 – Hearings Generally
15
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 25-15-212 – Administrative Adjudication