Free Nursing CEUs: Where to Find Them and Track Them

Keisha's license renews in eleven weeks. She needs 24 more contact hours, a paid CE subscription renewal email is sitting in her inbox, and she's on four 12-hour shifts this week. She knows free nursing CEUs exist. She just doesn't know which ones her board will accept, and which "free" sites will ask for a credit card on the last page. (Keisha is a composite, not a real nurse.)

This list fixes that. Every free nursing CEU source below was checked on the provider's own website on October 18, 2026: what's actually free, who accredits it, and what the catch is. One popular source that most lists still recommend is no longer free, and we say which. After the list you get a four-question check to run before you start any course, and a CE log template so the certificates don't scatter across your inbox.

Want a place to log each course the minute you finish it? Try ParrotNotes free and dictate the entry on the drive home.

What counts as a free nursing CEU

A free nursing CEU is a continuing education activity you can complete and get a certificate for at no cost, from a provider your state board of nursing accepts.

Two terms get mixed up. Strictly, one CEU equals ten contact hours, but most nurses and many providers use the words interchangeably (NursingCE.com says exactly that on its free courses page). State boards count contact hours, so that's the number to write down.

The second thing that matters is accreditation. CDC puts it plainly on its continuing education page: "Most U.S. State Boards of Nursing accept ANCC contact hours." Most, not all. Your board decides, and some states also require specific topics.

7 places to find free nursing CEUs

All checked on October 18, 2026. Free catalogs change every month, so treat the course titles as examples, not promises.

1. Nurse.com free courses

Nurse.com's free CE page says its free courses "are ANCC-accredited" and available to nurses in all 50 states. You create a free account, complete the course, pass the post-test and download the certificate. Most free courses are sponsored ("courtesy of" a hospital or company), for example a 1.00 contact hour course on communicating with patients.

The catch: for the sponsored free webinars, the page says completing them means agreeing to share your contact information with Relias LLC and its promotional partners for marketing.

2. American Nurses Association

ANA's online course store mixes paid and free courses. The free ones are marked "(Free)" at a $0.00 price for members and nonmembers, with ANCC contact hours: for example Risk Associated with Non-sterile Glove Use (1.0) and Environmental Infection Control (1.0). You add them to the cart and create an account.

The catch: they're short, so you'll need several to make a dent in a renewal.

3. CDC continuing education

CDC says "access to credits, units, and contact hours for educational activities is provided to learners at no cost," and tells registered nurses to request CNE contact hours. A good starting point is NIOSH's Workplace Violence Prevention for Nurses (WB5032): 2.5 nursing contact hours, no fee, credit available until July 9, 2029.

The catch: CDC courses are spread across programs, and each has its own course number and expiry date. Note both.

4. NursingCE.com

NursingCE.com is a brand of ATI Nursing Education, which its homepage describes as an ANCC-accredited provider. On the free courses page you review the content, score 80% or more on the post-test and download the certificate right away.

The catch: the free selection is small and rotates, so check back.

5. Hepatitis C Online (University of Washington)

Hepatitis C Online is "a free educational website from the University of Washington" with self-study modules where you can "earn free CNE/CME/CE" after creating a free account.

The catch: it's one topic in depth. Great for infection control, primary care or public health nurses; less useful if you need variety.

6. National HIV Curriculum (University of Washington)

The National HIV Curriculum offers "no-cost" CNE for its self-study lessons, up to 77.50 credits across CME, CNE and other credit types. The 4th Edition's accreditation period runs from September 1, 2026 to August 31, 2029, with joint accreditation provided by the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The catch: it's a large curriculum. Pick modules rather than trying to finish it.

7. American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA)

APNA's free continuing education page has a section of free sessions "for everyone," such as Emerging Threats in OUD (2.0 contact hours) and the Transforming Addiction Care webinar series (2.75). APNA members also get four free sessions every month.

The catch: the topics lean psychiatric and substance use, which suits many states' required-topic rules but not every nurse's interests.

One that's no longer free: Incredible Health

Many free nursing CEU lists still recommend Incredible Health. Its own CEU page says it "provided free CEUs for 4 years, from March 2020 to May 2024," and that since June 1, 2024 courses come with a free trial and then cost $37.50. If a list still calls it free, the list hasn't been checked lately.

Free nursing CEUs at a glance

Before you start: a four-question check

Five minutes here saves you from a certificate your board won't take.

1. What does my board require? Find your board in the NCSBN directory of boards of nursing and read its CE page. California, for example, requires RNs to "complete 30 contact hours of continuing education every two years," per the Board of Registered Nursing.
2. Does the course name its accreditor? Look for an accreditation statement on the course page, such as an ANCC-accredited provider. No statement, no hours.
3. Is the credit still live? Check the expiry date. A course finished after its credit expires may not count.
4. Do I owe a required topic? Some states require specific subjects. Search the free catalogs for those topics first.

If you're a new nurse building your first renewal cycle, our new grad nurse tips cover the first year's habits around it.

How to track free nursing CEUs

Free courses come from seven different websites, so the certificates end up in seven different inboxes and downloads folders. One log fixes that. Copy this:

CE LOG                                   Renewal date: __/__/____
Hours needed: ____   Hours logged: ____   Required topics owed: ________

Date | Course title | Provider | Contact hours | Accreditor | Expiry | Certificate saved to | One takeaway
-----|--------------|----------|---------------|------------|--------|----------------------|-------------
     |              |          |               |            |        |                      |

Fill one row the same day you finish a course. If typing it in the parking lot after a shift sounds unlikely, say it instead. Open ParrotNotes, tap record and dictate one line:

"CE log. Workplace Violence Prevention for Nurses, CDC, 2.5 contact hours, October 18, certificate in my CE folder, takeaway: how incidents get reported on my unit."

ParrotNotes transcribes it and summarizes it, and every log entry starts with the same two words, so finding them at renewal time is easy. On Pro, AI search across your notes pulls up "CE log" entries from the whole cycle in one go.

Webinars and in-services work the same way. Record your own spoken takeaways right after the session (and if you'd like to record a live in-service itself, ask the presenter first). Never record or mention patients: this is about your learning, not anyone's care. If you already have a transcript of a talk you're allowed to keep, our free lecture summarizer turns it into key points and review questions.

Tomás, a composite night-shift nurse, used to spend his last week before renewal digging certificates out of email. After one cycle of dictating a log line after each course, renewal took him a single search. (Tomás is a composite, not a real person.)

The Free plan includes 100 minutes of recording a month, an automatic summary on every recording and 5 AI-powered recordings a month, which is plenty for log entries. Pro ($19.99/month, or $14.99/month billed annually) adds 3,000 minutes a month and AI search across all your notes. Get ParrotNotes free and log your next course by voice.

For the bigger picture, our nursing professional development guide shows how to build a yearly plan around the hours you owe, and nurse time management helps you find the 30 minutes a course takes.

Start with one course this week

Free nursing CEUs are real and plentiful: Nurse.com, ANA, CDC, NursingCE.com, two University of Washington curricula and APNA all offer contact hours at no cost, checked October 18, 2026. Run the four-question check, pick one course that covers a required topic, and log it the day you finish.

Keisha's eleven weeks look different with a list and a log. Yours can too. Download ParrotNotes free, dictate your first CE log line tonight, and walk into renewal with every hour already counted.