Illinois Nurse Practice Act: Licensing, Scope, and Renewal

The Illinois Nurse Practice Act (225 ILCS 65) is the state statute that defines who can practice nursing in Illinois, what each level of nurse is allowed to do, and how a license is issued, renewed, disciplined, or lost. It creates three licensure tiers (LPN, RN, and APRN), sets scope-of-practice boundaries for each, and gives the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), advised by the Board of Nursing, authority over the whole system.¹

The Three License Levels and What Each Can Do

The Act recognizes three tiers, each tied to a specific education level and a defined clinical authority.

A Licensed Practical Nurse performs nursing interventions under the guidance of an RN or APRN, or as directed by a physician, dentist, or podiatric physician. LPN work centers on focused assessments and contributing data to the broader patient picture rather than managing the nursing process independently.

A Registered Professional Nurse covers the full nursing process: assessment, nursing diagnosis, care plan development, intervention, and evaluation, along with health promotion and patient advocacy. The statute specifically excludes medical diagnosis and the prescription of medical treatments from the RN scope.²

An Advanced Practice Registered Nurse holds graduate education and national certification in one of four roles: Certified Nurse Practitioner, Certified Nurse Midwife, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, or Clinical Nurse Specialist. Each APRN is also certified in a population focus such as family across the lifespan, adult-gerontology, pediatrics, neonatal, psychiatric/mental health, or women’s health. New APRN graduates may practice for up to six months under a “license-pending” status while awaiting national certification results. During that period they cannot prescribe medications and must use the “license-pending” title with their role designation.³

How to Get Licensed in Illinois

Applications run through the IDFPR’s online CORE system, which accepts document uploads and processes fees by credit or debit card.⁴ Before you submit, assemble an ED-NUR form (Certificate of Education) signed by your program’s dean or director with the school seal, or official transcripts with the school seal. You also register separately for the NCLEX through the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.⁵

Every initial applicant submits to a fingerprint-based criminal background check through the Illinois State Police or its designated agent. Vendor fees for digital fingerprinting typically run $12 to $60 on top of state processing charges. If your name on the application differs from what appears on your transcript, include proof of the change through a marriage certificate or court order.⁵ Fees vary by license type; an RN endorsement application, for example, is $50, with an optional $25 temporary permit fee if you need to start working before the permanent license arrives.

Processing slows during spring and summer graduation seasons. You can track status online, and if IDFPR spots a gap, it issues a deficiency letter listing what’s missing. Once approved, your permanent license number appears in the state’s public license lookup.

Nurses educated outside the United States must complete CGFNS certification (credentials evaluation, qualifying exam, and English proficiency) before Illinois will consider the application.⁶

Renewing Your License and Meeting CE

Illinois nursing licenses run on a two-year cycle. RN licenses renew in even-numbered years; LPN licenses expire January 31 of odd-numbered years. The renewal fee is $40 per year of the cycle, so $80 at each renewal.

RNs complete 20 hours of continuing education per two-year cycle from approved providers.⁷ APRNs complete 80 hours per cycle, with at least 50 from formal CE programs. Of those 50, at least 20 must be in pharmacotherapeutics, including 10 hours on opioid prescribing or substance abuse education. Up to 30 hours may come from presentations, publications, research, or preceptor work.⁸ Completing the 80 APRN hours also satisfies the RN CE requirement.

Several mandated topics apply to every renewal regardless of license level, and they count toward (not on top of) the total CE requirement:

One hour of sexual harassment prevention, required since January 1, 2020.
One hour of implicit bias awareness, required beginning with the 2024 cycle.
One hour on Alzheimer’s and dementia diagnosis, treatment, and care for nurses who provide direct care to adults 26 and older.

Nurses who are mandated reporters under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act also complete mandated reporter training at least every six years.⁷

Delegation: What an RN Can and Cannot Hand Off

Delegation is where scope disputes most often arise. An RN may delegate nursing interventions to other RNs, LPNs, or unlicensed personnel, but the decision must be based on patient stability, potential for harm, complexity of the task, predictability of outcomes, and the competency of the person receiving the delegation. Four things can never be delegated to anyone: nursing judgment, the comprehensive patient assessment, development of the care plan, and evaluation of care.⁹

Medication administration can only be delegated to other licensed nurses in most settings. The exception is community-based and in-home care, where an RN may delegate oral, subcutaneous, and topical medication administration to unlicensed personnel if all delegation conditions are met. Institutional and long-term care facilities are excluded from that exception. No employer or facility can force an RN to delegate if the RN judges it unsafe, and the Act prohibits disciplinary action against nurses who refuse to delegate on patient safety grounds.⁹ LPNs and unlicensed personnel who receive a delegated task cannot re-delegate it.

APRN Full Practice Authority and Prescribing

Illinois built a pathway for nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists to eventually practice without a written collaborative agreement with a physician. To qualify, the APRN files a notarized attestation showing at least 250 hours of continuing education or training in their certification area and at least 4,000 hours of clinical experience after first attaining national certification. That clinical experience must be completed in collaboration with one or more physicians, and both the APRN and the collaborating physician attest to it.¹⁰

Full practice authority allows independent practice across all settings consistent with the APRN’s national certification, including prescribing legend drugs and Schedule II through V controlled substances and ordering diagnostic tests without physician sign-off. One limit remains: prescribing Schedule II narcotics such as opioids still requires a consultation relationship with a physician, recorded through the Prescription Monitoring Program.¹⁰

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists are not included in the full practice authority pathway; they continue under separate provisions. APRNs who have not yet hit the 4,000-hour threshold may apply for a six-month “full practice authority-pending” status and practice under supervision of either a full practice authority APRN or a physician during that period.³ Any APRN prescribing controlled substances must also hold a federal DEA registration; the DEA classifies these roles as “mid-level practitioners” and requires independent registration.

What Can Cost You Your License

The IDFPR can refuse to issue or renew a license, revoke or suspend it, place a nurse on probation, issue a reprimand, or impose fines up to $10,000 per violation.¹¹ The statute lists many grounds; the ones that come up most often are:

Any felony conviction, and misdemeanors that involve dishonesty or relate directly to nursing practice. Guilty pleas, nolo contendere pleas, and sentences of supervision or conditional discharge all count.
Habitual or excessive use of alcohol, narcotics, stimulants, or other substances that could impair safe practice.
Incompetence, including gross negligence and repeated errors.
Practicing beyond your licensure level, including medical diagnosis without legal authority.
Discipline in another jurisdiction on substantially equivalent grounds.
Failing to respond to a written IDFPR inquiry for more than 90 days.

The Board of Nursing participates in disciplinary hearings and recommends sanctions, with scope-of-practice disputes heard by a board member licensed at the same level or higher than the respondent. Fines collected under Section 70-5 go into the Nursing Dedicated and Professional Fund.¹¹

Illinois discipline follows you out of state. Adverse actions (including a voluntary surrender during an investigation) and malpractice payments must be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank within 30 days, and other boards and hospitals query the database during credentialing.¹² Nurses convicted of healthcare fraud or certain other offenses may also be placed on the HHS Office of Inspector General List of Excluded Individuals and Entities. Exclusion means no federal healthcare program can pay for items or services you furnish, direct, or prescribe, which effectively closes most healthcare employment. An excluded nurse who causes a claim to be submitted to a federal program faces civil penalties of $10,000 per item or service plus triple damages, and knowing employers face the same structure.¹³

Practicing Across State Lines

The Nurse Licensure Compact lets RNs and LPNs hold a single multistate license and practice in other compact states without a separate license in each. To qualify, you live in a compact state, hold an active and unencumbered license, have passed the NCLEX, have completed state and federal fingerprint-based background checks, and have no felony convictions. Misdemeanor convictions related to nursing are evaluated case by case.¹⁴

Your multistate license is tied to your primary state of residence, established through legal documents (driver’s license, voter registration, tax return, W-2) rather than property ownership, and all proof documents must come from the same state. Move to a new compact state and you obtain a new multistate license from that state’s board.¹⁵ Nurses transferring a license into Illinois can use Nursys electronic verification, which sends credentials directly to IDFPR for $30 per license type per jurisdiction; Nursys does not handle temporary licenses or APRN verifications.¹⁶

The compact covers RNs and LPNs. APRN licensure is not part of the multistate license.

Restoring a Lapsed License

If your Illinois license has been inactive or expired for five years or less, restoration is largely paperwork: the required forms, applicable fees, outstanding CE hours, and new fingerprints taken within 60 days of the application.

If it has been more than five years, you must also prove fitness to practice by showing active licensure in another jurisdiction, providing a military service affidavit, or completing a Department-approved refresher course or licensure exam. APRNs in this bracket must show continued national certification in their specialty. A temporary restoration permit is available if you hold an active license in another U.S. jurisdiction or can verify nursing employment within the past five years, letting you work while the full application is processed.¹⁷

1
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 225 ILCS 65 – Nurse Practice Act, Board of Nursing
2
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 225 ILCS 65/50-10 – Registered Professional Nursing Practice
3
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 225 ILCS 65/65-10 – APRN Licensure
4
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Comprehensive Online Regulatory Environment
5
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Registered Nurse Licensure Application
6
CGFNS International. CGFNS Certification Program
7
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. FAQs About Illinois RN Continuing Education
8
Justia Law. Illinois Code 225 ILCS 65, Article 65 – Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
9
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 225 ILCS 65/50-75 – Nursing Delegation by a Registered Professional Nurse
10
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 225 ILCS 65/65-43 – Full Practice Authority
11
Justia Law. Illinois Code 225 ILCS 65, Article 70 – Administration and Enforcement
12
National Practitioner Data Bank. What You Must Report to the Data Bank
13
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. Effects of Exclusion
14
Nurse Licensure Compact. Applying for Licensure
15
Nurse Licensure Compact. Frequently Asked Questions
16
Nursys. Nurse License Verification for Endorsement FAQs
17
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code Title 68, Section 1300.50 – Restoration