Does UpToDate Count as CME for Nurse Practitioners?

Yes. Nurse practitioners can earn continuing education credit while using UpToDate.

UpToDate is accredited by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) as an approved provider of nurse practitioner continuing education, under provider number 051212. For each hour of participation, NPs can claim 1.0 contact hour, and UpToDate automatically tracks eligible time spent using the service.

For NPs certified through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB), UpToDate may also be used toward certification renewal requirements. Some UpToDate activity may qualify toward the required pharmacology hours as well.

That makes UpToDate particularly useful for NPs who already use it during clinical practice—you may be accumulating CE while answering questions you encounter at work.

How do nurse practitioners earn CE through UpToDate?

One of the advantages of UpToDate is that you don't necessarily need to sit through a traditional CE course.

UpToDate tracks eligible time you spend using the platform. NPs can claim one contact hour for each hour of participation, and accumulated contact hours can be redeemed for up to five years after they are earned. That five-year window is longer than the two years most other professions get, which happens to line up neatly with a five-year certification period.

However, don't assume that simply having access to UpToDate means CE is automatically sitting in your certification record.

You still need to claim your credit and retain the appropriate documentation.

UpToDate also notes that CE availability can depend on the type of subscription. Credit is not available with personal subscriptions purchased at trainee rates.

Does UpToDate count toward AANP certification renewal?

For NPs certified by AANPCB, yes.

UpToDate specifically states that its use is acceptable for AANPCB certification renewal.

This distinction is important because AANP and AANPCB aren't quite the same thing.

AANP is the professional membership organization, while AANPCB is the certification board responsible for certifications such as FNP-C, A-GNP-C and ENP-C.

If you're tracking CE for certification renewal, make sure you're following the requirements of your certification board, not simply the requirements of a professional membership organization.

AANP itself recommends checking with your specific NP certification board when determining whether an educational activity is acceptable for your certification requirements.

Does UpToDate count as pharmacology CE?

It can.

This is probably the most useful—and potentially confusing—part for NPs.

UpToDate states that it meets the pharmacology requirement for NP certification renewal with both AANPCB and ANCC.

But there is an important catch.

UpToDate does not necessarily identify individual pharmacology hours separately on the CE certificate. For AANPCB renewal, UpToDate recommends submitting the activity log along with the certificate. The activity log contains information such as the clinical searches performed, topics reviewed, contact hours earned and dates of activity.

AANPCB encourages candidates to review that activity log and carry out a self-assessment to determine how well the content aligns with the pharmacology component. In other words, the judgement is yours to make and yours to defend.

Content that might reasonably qualify includes learning related to:

drug therapy
safe prescribing
pharmacokinetics
medication management
treatment of acute or chronic conditions using pharmacologic therapy

Not every hour you earn through UpToDate should automatically be labeled pharmacology CE.

If you're using UpToDate hours toward your pharmacology requirement, good recordkeeping becomes especially important.

What documentation should you keep?

If you're using UpToDate CE toward certification renewal, don't just record a number such as "UpToDate — 12 hours".

Keep the supporting documentation too.

For UpToDate CE, that may include your:

CE certificate
UpToDate activity/history log
dates of activity
number of contact hours claimed
relevant topic information
identification of qualifying pharmacology content, when applicable

This is especially important when claiming UpToDate activity as pharmacology CE, because the certificate itself may not separately identify those hours.

What if my employer provides UpToDate?

You may still be able to earn CE through an institutional subscription, but CE availability depends on how your organization's UpToDate access is configured.

Check the CME/CE section within your UpToDate account to see whether credit tracking is available to you.

If you use UpToDate regularly at work, it's worth checking rather than assuming you haven't earned anything.

Is UpToDate CE the same as AANP CE?

There's an important distinction here.

UpToDate isn't simply a random educational website whose credits happen to be accepted. UpToDate is accredited by AANP as an approved provider of NP continuing education.

AANP also lists UpToDate among its digital clinical reference tools and notes that it automatically tracks time spent using the service.

So an NP doesn't necessarily need to obtain every contact hour directly through the AANP CE Center.

Before you renew

If you've been using UpToDate throughout your certification cycle, check your accumulated CE before purchasing additional CE courses.

You may discover that some of the clinical research you've already been doing can count toward your requirements.

Then:

Claim the appropriate UpToDate CE.
Download your certificate and activity documentation.
Determine which hours appropriately qualify as pharmacology, if applicable.
Record the CE in your tracker.
Keep the original documentation in case you need it later.

The goal isn't simply to reach the required number of hours. It's to be able to show where those hours came from and what they represented.

Keep your CE organized as you earn it

Waiting until renewal time to reconstruct years of continuing education can make an already confusing process harder.

Wellkept CE helps nurse practitioners track CE hours, pharmacology hours and supporting documentation in one place throughout their certification cycle.

Information reflects UpToDate, AANP and NPCB/AANPCB guidance available in September 2026. Wellkept is an independent organizational tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by UpToDate, Wolters Kluwer, AANP, AANPCB, NPCB, or ANCC. Continuing education and certification requirements can change. Always confirm current requirements with your certifying organization, and confirm current CE terms with UpToDate.