Maintain a License | Washington State Board of Nursing

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.

New 2 hours of health equity continuing education requirement

Washington nurses must meet health equity continuing education to renew their license. These requirements must be done…

Maintaining your Washington State Nurse License

Once you are licensed in Washington state, you are responsible for maintaining your license.

Continuing Competency

You must meet continuing education and active practice hours to renew your license.

Continuing Competency Requirements

Demographic Data

All nurses working in Washington state must provide demographic data every year.

Workforce Data Requirements

Renewals

Renew your license according to your profession's renewal schedule, up to 90 days prior to your birthday.

Renew or Reactivate a License

Update Your Information

You are responsible for making sure we have the most current contact and personal information regarding your license.

Change Your Personal Information

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.