The Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) certifies public health nurses and advanced practice nurses. Advanced practice nurses include nurse practitioners, nurse-midwives, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse anesthetists. The BRN also maintains a listing of psychiatric/mental health nurses. In each of these categories, the individual must first have a California registered nurse license before obtaining the certificate.
Transcripts: Advanced Practice and PHN transcripts can be sent to our Board electronically from a certified third-party electronic transcripts vendor such as Parchment, National Student Clearinghouse * , or directly from your school. Electronic transcripts must be sent to BRN.APRN.eTranscripts@dca.ca.gov.
* If requesting transcripts via National Student Clearinghouse, please use these instructions to ensure proper delivery of your electronic transcripts to the Board.
Required Documents: Additional required documents and forms will be accepted electronically. Required advanced practice and PHN forms and documents will not be accepted from applicants and will only be accepted from the appropriate school, national organizations, and associations electronically to the following Board email address: BRN.APRN.eDocs@dca.ca.gov.
You can check the progress of your online application by regularly logging into your BreEZe account or by using the Application Status and Details portal.
Please refer to our Processing Times page for current timeframes.
The clinical nurse specialist is a BRN certified RN who is an advanced practice nurse providing expert clinical practice, research, education, consultation and clinical leadership with an identified patient population. The scope of clinical nurse specialist practice includes patients, nursing personnel and organization systems. Clinical nurse specialists work in direct patient care and indirect patient care activities that affect a broad range of patients.
There are three methods to qualify for certification as a clinical nurse specialist with the BRN. General reporting of prior disciplines are required for all methods.
The nurse anesthetist is a registered nurse who provides anesthesia services ordered by a physician, dentist, or podiatrist, and is certified by the BRN in this specialty.
The Nurse-Midwife (NMW) is an advanced practice nurse who have met the educational standards and certification requirements established by the Board and possesses additional advanced practice educational preparation and skills consistent with the Core Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice adopted by the American College of Nurse-Midwives. After receiving a certificate from the BRN, a NWM is authorized to attend cases of low-risk pregnancy and childbirth to provide prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care, including interconception care, family planning care, and immediate care for the newborn.
The NMW and NMF applications have now been combined, and you may apply for both when submitting your nurse-midwife application by marking “yes” to the question regarding furnishing drugs. Once the NMW has been approved, your furnishing application will be opened and processed accordingly and a Schedule II designation may also be granted at this time.
The BRN issues a furnishing number to a NMW that allows them to "order" or furnish drugs and devices to patients using approved standardized procedures. The drugs or devices are furnished or ordered by a NMW in line with care rendered, consistent with the NMW’s educational preparation or for which clinical competency has been established and maintained. The furnishing or ordering of drugs or devices by a NMW for services that do not fall within the scope of services including, are in accordance with the standardized procedures or protocols developed in collaboration with, and approved by, a physician and surgeon and the NMW.
If you applied through the combination NMW and NMWF application and the requirements were met as part of the advanced pharmacology course content, the Schedule II will be granted on approval of your nurse midwife certification and a separate request for the ability to furnish will not be required. A schedule II designation may also be granted at this time.
In order to furnish Schedule II controlled substances, nurse midwives must complete the required pharmacological content including the risks of addiction associated with their use and neonatal abstinence syndrome associated with the use of opioids, in an advanced pharmacology course associated with a nurse midwife/APRN academic program and shall register with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
If you applied through the combination NMW and NMWF application or separate NMWF application and the requirements were met as part of the advanced pharmacology course content, this will be granted on approval of your NMWF number, and a separate request for the ability to furnish Schedule II controlled substances will not be required.
Each nurse-midwife requesting Schedule II furnishing privileges, after their initial nurse-midwife furnishing number has been approved, must submit the following items to the BRN:
Upon receipt of the request and the required information from your school, the BRN will verify completion of pharmacological content, including risks of addiction associated with their use and neonatal abstinence syndrome.
Continuing education courses will not be accepted to obtain Schedule II initially; therefore, you will need to take an advanced pharmacology course that includes the risks of addiction associated with their use and neonatal abstinence syndrome associated with the use of opioids, in an advanced pharmacology course associated with a nurse midwife/APRN academic program. If you need to find a course, you may contact a California Board-approved nurse-midwifery program or contact other nurse-midwifery program(s) by searching the American College of Nurse-Midwives.
The DEA will process nurse-midwife applications after accessing the Board’s web site to ensure that Controlled Substance II, with Risks of Addiction and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome designations, have been added to your nurse-midwife furnishing number.
As mentioned above, continuing education courses will not be accepted to obtain Schedule II initially; however, per Business and Professions Code section 2746.51(b)(4), in order to retain privileges to furnish Schedule II substances, nurse midwives, by the time of renewal, complete a minimum 2-hour continuing education course that meets the Board requirements below:
Course Description requirements for Schedule II controlled substances:
Minimum Course Objectives for Schedule II controlled substances:
At completion of the course, the nurse-midwife will be able to:
The Nurse Practitioner (NP) is an advanced practice registered nurse who meets Board education and certification requirements and possesses additional advanced practice educational preparation and skills in physical diagnosis, psycho-social assessment, and management of health-illness needs in primary care, and/or acute care.
The NP and NPF applications have now been combined, and you may apply for both when submitting your nurse practitioner application by marking "yes" to the question regarding furnishing drugs. Once the NP application has been approved, your NPF application will be opened and processed accordingly, and a Schedule II designation may also be granted at this time.
The BRN issues a furnishing number to a NP that allows them to "order" or furnish drugs and devices to patients using approved standardized procedures. The drugs or devices are furnished or ordered by a NP in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols developed by the NP and the supervising physician and surgeon when the drugs or devices furnished or ordered are consistent with the practitioner’s educational preparation or for which clinical competency has been established and maintained.
If you applied through the combination NP and NPF application and the requirements were met as part of the advanced pharmacology course content, the Schedule II will be granted on approval of your nurse practitioner certification and a separate request for the ability to furnish will not be required. A Schedule II designation may also be granted at this time.
In order to furnish Schedule II controlled substances, NPs must complete the required pharmacological content, including risks of addiction associated with their use in a nurse practitioner program and shall register with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
If you applied through the combination NP and NPF application or separate NPF application and the requirements were met as part of the advanced pharmacology course content, this will be granted on approval of your nurse practitioner furnishing number, and a separate request for the ability to furnish Schedule II controlled substances will not be required.
Each NP requesting Schedule II furnishing privileges, after their initial NPF application has been approved, must submit the following items to the BRN:
Upon receipt of the request and the required information from your school, the Board will verify completion of pharmacological content, including risks of addiction associated with their use in a nurse practitioner program, and the written request.
Continuing education courses will not be accepted to obtain Schedule II initially; therefore, you will need to take an advanced pharmacology course that includes the risks of addiction associated with a nurse practitioner program. If you need to find a course, you may contact a California Board-approved nurse practitioner program or contact other NP programs by utilizing the NP program search via the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, NP Program Search.
** Most states meet these educational requirements. This will be dependent upon the review of the Director of the Nurse Practitioner Academic Program that you attended. HSC Division 10 – Uniform controlled substances act Chapter 4 – Prescriptions and Chapter 5 – Use of controlled Substances should be reviewed to ensure this content was part of the nurse practitioner’s educational program. Nurse practitioner educational programs based out of Washington DC, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and South Dakota may require additional education to meet these requirements.
The DEA will process all NP applications after accessing the Board’s web site to ensure that Schedule II, Risk of Addictions, privileges have been added to your nurse practitioner furnishing number.
As mentioned above, continuing education courses will not be accepted to obtain Schedule II initially; however, per Business and Professions Code section 2836.1(g)(3), in order to retain privileges to furnish Schedule II substances, nurse practitioners, by the time of renewal, complete a minimum 3-hour continuing education course that meets the Board requirements below:
Course Description requirements for Schedule II controlled substances:
Minimum Course Objectives for Schedule II controlled substances:
ALERT Legacy or Retired National Certifications will not qualify for a (103NP) Nurse Practitioner Practicing Without Standardized Procedures in a Group Setting
A Nurse Practitioner who practices without standard procedures in a group setting as defined in 16 CCR 1480 k and BPC 2837.103 (2)(A-F) may perform the functions listed in Section 2387.103(c) of the code in which the applicant has a National Certification as a Nurse Practitioner.
NOTE: Before starting the application, please be prepared to provide your national certification information with the original issue date.
Pursuant to Insurance Code Section 10176, the BRN maintains a listing of registered nurses who possess a master's degree in psychiatric/mental health nursing plus two years of supervised experience providing services as a psychiatric/mental health nurse and who have applied to the BRN to be listed. This voluntary listing enables the certificate holder to receive direct reimbursement from insurance carriers for counseling services.
There are two methods to qualify for listing as a psychiatric/mental health nurse with the BRN. General reporting of prior disciplines are required for both methods.
The public health nurse is a registered nurse who has received a certificate from the BRN. He or she is an integral part of the public health community and provides direct patient care as well as services related to maintaining public health.
