Apply for an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) license only when you meet the following requirements.

• You must be concurrently applying for or already hold an active Registered Nurse license either in Delaware or one of these compactstates.
  Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin

Note: For important information on how the Nurse Compact affects your Nursing license, see Compact (Multi-State) Licensure.

• You must have a:
• Master’s degree, or
• Post-basic program certificate in a clinical nursing specialty with nursing certification from a national certification body recognized by the Board, if certification is available.

• The practice requirement that you must meet depends on whether national certification is available for your specialty.

• To practice in Delaware, APN’s are required to have a collaborative agreement (Section 8.4 of the Board’s Rules and Regulations). You may apply for an APN license without a collaborative agreement. However, do not start practicing as an APN in Delaware until you have a collaborative agreement and your APN license or a temporary permit has been issued.

• If you wish to be licensed to practice more than one APN specialty, you must file a separate application for each specialty.

• If your application is not complete within six months of filing, it may be considered abandoned and discarded. The Board office will notify you before disposing of an abandoned application.

• When your APN license is issued, it will have the same expiration date and come up for renewal at the same time as your Delaware RN license.

How to File APN Application

• Unless you are applying for a Delaware RN at the same time, complete the Authorization for Release of Information form to request a criminal background check. Follow the instructions on the authorization form to arrange to be fingerprinted. You must meet this requirement even if you recently had a criminal background check done for some other reason.
• Submit completed, signed and notarized application form.
• Enclose processing fee by check or money order made payable to “State of Delaware.”
• Unless you are applying for a Delaware RN at the same time, enclose a copy of your driver’s license or official identification card from the Division of Motor Vehicles.
• Request your APN program to send an official transcript directly to the Board office.
• If your specialty requires national certification, enclose a copy of your original certification notice or current re-certification card with your application and submit proof of national certification as shown in this table.

• If you have a collaborative agreement, your collaborator must sign the COLLABORATIVE AGREEMENT section.

How to Apply for a Temporary APN Permit

A Temporary APN Permit allows you to practice as an APN until your license is issued.

• Delaware temporary permits are not valid for work in any other state.
• A temporary permit does not give you prescriptive authority!
• You must be supervised while working under a temporary permit.
• Do not begin employment until you are assigned a temporary permit number .

All of the following are required for issuance of a temporary permit:

• “Yes” to the question about temporary permit on the APN Application.
• Temporary permit fee by check or money order made payable to “State of Delaware” in addition to the processing fee for the APN application.
• Official copy of your transcript to be sent directly from your program to the Board office.
• If your specialty requires certification , copy of your original certification document or current re-certification card.
• If you are not yet certified, request the certifying organization to submit a letter verifying your eligibility to take the examination.
• If you fail the examination, your Temporary Permit will be terminated. You may submit a request to the Board to work under supervision until you pass the examination and receive your certification. Your supervisor must submit a letter that he/she will supervise you until you pass the examination and receive your certification.
• If certification is not available for your specialty and you do not have 1000 hours practice in your specialty over the past two years , letter from your supervisor agreeing to supervise you and to report when you have completed the 1000 hours practice.
• Results of the criminal background check.

Your permit will be issued and mailed to you within seven days of the date all of the above documentation is received. It is not available at the Board office. Meanwhile, you may verify your permit online. The temporary permit expires 90 days from issuance.

How to Apply for Prescriptive Authority

The APN Application includes a question asking whether you are applying for prescriptive authority.

• You must have a collaborative agreement to apply for prescriptive authority.
• You may apply for prescriptive authority at the same time as you apply for APN licensure or later on.
• You must have prescriptive authority before you can apply for a controlled substance registration.
• If you receive prescriptive authority, you may prescribe only non-controlled substances. To prescribe controlled substances, you must first file an application for a Delaware controlled substance registration. See Controlled Substances on www.dpr.delaware.gov. After your Delaware controlled substance registration is approved, you then file for a federal DEA registration.

To apply for prescriptive authority at the same time as your APN license…

• Answer “yes” to the question about prescriptive authority.
• Complete the COLLABORATIVE AGREEMENT section. Have your collaborator sign the collaborator certification.
• The official transcript from your APN program that you submitted for APN licensure must clearly show that you have completed academic courses in all of the following:
• advanced health assessment
• diagnosis & management of problems within your clinical specialty
• advanced pathophysiology
• advanced pharmacology/pharmacotherapeutics

If the transcript does not clearly show this coursework, the Board office will contact you for further documentation.

• This table shows when proof of continuing education (CE) in advanced pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics is required.

Do not send documents such as copies of course registrations or letters/e-mails thanking you for registering as proof of CE.