Skip to main content

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) recently launched a new licensing system for all health professionals and facilities in Washington state on April 29, 2025. The Healthcare Enforcement and Licensing Management System (HELMS) was developed to create efficiencies, improve user experience, streamline processing, strengthen data access, and reduce paper-based activities. Please note, you will need to manually add the HELMS Portal when renewing or applying in HELMS for the first time. We are also experiencing longer than usual application processing times due to this recent implementation. Thank you for your patience as we process applications in date order received.

What We Do for WA Board of Nursing (WABON)

In Licensing, we work together to guide nursing applicants and nurses through licensing and renewal.

You can also verify a license or licenses.

 
Image
1920px x 500px Licensing Jumbotron image of the Underside of the Tumwater bridge

Washington State Nurse License Applications

We process all license applications and renewals for Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners (ARNP), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN), Nursing Technicians (NTEC) and Registered Nurses (RN)

Note: We don’t process applications for Nursing Assistants. The Department of Health (DOH) does.

Sending Payment by Check

We encourage you to apply and renew online, but if you are unable to, then please make checks payable to the Department of Health and mail them to the following address:
Department of Health
PO Box 1099
Olympia, WA 98507-1099

SecureAccess Washington (SAW) Account

We use SecureAccess Washington (SAW) to protect your personal information. To apply, renew, or manage your license online you need to either create or login to a SAW account.