Nurse Practitioner Initial Approval to Practice

Welcome to the North Carolina Board of Nursing Online Application for Nurse Practitioner Initial Approval to Practice.

The initial application is needed for the first-time applicant as a nurse practitioner in North Carolina. Before you can apply for initial approval you must have registered with the NC Board of Nursing as a Nurse Practitioner.

Initial applications must be reviewed and approved by the North Carolina Board of Nursing and the North Carolina Medical Board. Written notification of the FINAL approval to practice will be mailed to the NP’s home address approximately 7 to 10 days after the final approval meeting. Final action on an application cannot be given by phone.

What is the Turn-Around Time?
Please allow 15 business days for receipt and review of your application. In addition to the submission of your online application, additional materials will be required.  If an email address was provided, you will receive an email confirmation verifying receipt of your online application.

You may also track the status of your application on the Nurse Practitioner Status Check web page here.

Once your approval to practice is complete, you may go to “Verify License” on NCBON home page to view your approval.

Once all required materials have been received/reviewed and your application is complete, you will be mailed written confirmation of your interim approval.

Due to the large volume of calls, we are unable to return status check inquiries.

These materials are helpful references to keep on file at each NP practice site:

• Rules Regulating NP Practice (21 NCAC 32M.0100 and 21 NCAC 36.0800)
• N.C. General Statues governing nurse practitioners 90-6; 90-18(a)(b)(14); 90-18.2 – Medical Board and Nursing Practice Act 90-171.19-48
• Approval to Practice form(s) submitted to the Board
• Correspondence sent to and received from the Boards
• Information regarding dispensing of drugs may be obtained from N.C. Board of Pharmacy, P. O. Box 4560, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919-942-4454)  Click here to see NP FAQ re: samples. 

Back-up supervising physicians: No form is required to list or add back-up supervising physicians. An on-going list of back-up supervising physicians approved by your primary supervising physician, signed and dated by each back-up supervising physician, the primary supervising physician, and the nurse practitioner, must be retained as described in Rule 21 NCAC 32M.0101(11) or 21 NCAC 36.0801(11). Please do not send the documents to the Boards, but retain those documents for five (5) years. (Sample form for back-up supervising physicians is provided.) 

DEA Numbers
If you are going to prescribe or order controlled substances, you must obtain a DEA number. Contact: Drug Enforcement Administration, Registration Unit, 75 Spring Street, SW, Room 740, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 (888-219-8689) or www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov – Direct Registration – Form 224.

Additional Practice Sites
If you have additional practice sites to be listed following the Board’s acknowledgment of your approval to practice form, you can submit this information online or in writing. If you submit in writing, list the additional sites including the practice name, address and the name of the primary supervising physician listed on your original approval to practice application who will supervise your medical acts at the additional site(s).

A separate application and fee are required for each primary supervising physician.  If you will have more than one primary supervising physician, use the initial approval application for one and subsequent applications for the others. 

NOTE:  This application will timeout after 20 minutes of inactivity once you click CONTINUE.     

Before you continue with the North Carolina Nurse Practitioner on-line application process, you must have the following:

• Click here for information needed to complete your application.  
• A printer.  You will be required to print forms at the end of the application process. 
• A valid credit or debit card – MasterCard or Visa. 

Computer Requirements:

• Popup blockers disabled or temporarily allow popups for this application. 
• Browser set to accept cookies. 
• Javascript-enabled. 
• Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. 
• Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 5.0 or higher) to view and print the necessary forms.

PLEASE BE SURE YOU INDICATE THE CORRECT STATUS OF VOLUNTEER POSITION OR NON-VOLUNTEER POSITION FOR EACH APPROVAL.