Medical Licenses and Accreditation You Need to Stay on Top of in California

To be a medically practicing physician or nurse in California, students must maintain a medical license with the proper accreditation. Once licensed, physicians can diagnose patients, prescribe medication, and administer treatment.

Physicians and Nurse Practitioners must continue their education to maintain their licenses. After graduating, nurses and physicians must continue their education to obtain their licenses. In the years following, they’ll need to renew their licenses.

Physicians — Board-Approved Postgraduate Training

To earn their license, physicians must participate in 12 months of training from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Physicians may also complete their training in Canada. Accreditation may come from The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC).

After completion, they will receive a postgraduate training license (PTL). The PTL is valid for 90 days after completing their 12-month training to allow time for licensure.

After the first 12 months of training, trainees must get a California Physician and Surgeon license.

Physicians — Renewing Your License

Licenses don’t last forever, so physicians need to apply to renew them. Licenses expire every two years; those received after July 1, 2018, expire at midnight on the expiration date.

Physicians need to verify that they’ve gotten credit for 36 months of postgraduate training approved by the board. Twenty-four months of that training must be through the same training program.

Physicians — Continuing Education

Working in the medical field entails physicians continuing their education long after graduating.

In California, MDs must have 50 hours of approved continuing medical education (CME) credits every license cycle. All of these credits must be Category 1 approved.

DOs must also have 50 hours of approved CME credits every license cycle. But 20 of those hours must be an AOA category 1A or 1B.

Most physicians must complete a one-time training in treating terminally ill patients and pain management. Radiologists and pathologists are the only ones exempt from this training.

Nurses & Nurse Practitioners — Maintaining An Active License

Registered nurses (RNs) in California must complete 30 hours of continuing education every two years. RNs must take the courses through a provider that the Board of Registered Nursing recognizes.

Continuing education courses must be relevant to nursing and improve student knowledge. Students should have learned more through the course than is required for practice.

RNs must keep records of grade slips or certificates for four years after course completion because they are proof that nurses have completed the required continuing education. All registered nurses may be subject to random audits.

Nurses renewing their license for the first time do not have to complete these requirements if they took the exam less than two years prior. However, nurses within their first two years of licensure must still complete one credit hour in an implicit bias course.

Nurse practitioners are not required to take additional continuing education classes outside the necessary 30 hours.

Conclusion

To practice medicine in California, nurses and physicians must take continuing education courses and maintain their licenses. Licenses expire every two years, and practitioners and nurses must continue taking classes to renew their licenses.

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