How to become a licensed nursing home administrator in Oregon: the five routes, the 960-hour Administrator-in-Training (AIT) program, the NAB exams and Oregon’s laws and rules exam, fees, continuing education and renewal, with section numbers.
| Who licenses | The Long Term Care Administrators Board, in the Health Licensing Office (Oregon Health Authority, Public Health Division) |
|---|---|
| Who can apply | Five pathways, from the AIT program to endorsement of another state’s license (OAR 853-030-0000) |
| AIT requirement | 960 hours of preceptor-supervised training, completed in 6 months to 2 years, with one waiver of 80, 160 or 450 hours possible (OAR 853-030-0040) |
| National exams | NAB Core of Knowledge (CORE) and NHA Line of Service on the AIT and dual-facility routes, passed within 1 year before or after you apply (OAR 853-030-0000) |
| State exam | Required on most routes: the Nursing Home Administrators Oregon Laws and Rules Examination, 100 multiple-choice questions, 75 percent to pass, $125, walk-in at the Office in Salem (OAR 853-030-0050) Details ↓ |
| Continuing education | 10 hours every year, including 1 hour of cultural competency every other year, with no carryover (OAR 853-050-0000) |
| Renewal | Every year, by the last day of the month in which your license was issued; $130 (OAR 853-030-0070; OAR 331-030-0010) |
| Official sources | oregon.gov/oha/ph/hlo (the Board and the Office) · ORS chapter 678 (Oregon Legislature) · OAR chapter 853 (the Office’s laws and rules page) · nabweb.org (national exams) |
Verified September 2026. ORS is the Oregon Revised Statutes and OAR the Oregon Administrative Rules; “the Office” is the Health Licensing Office. Rule text is quoted from the Office’s own copy of its rules and from the oregon.public.law and Cornell LII copies, labeled mirrors.
The license comes from the Long Term Care Administrators Board, which licenses nursing home administrators and residential care facility administrators. The Board sits in the Health Licensing Office (the Office), part of the Oregon Health Authority’s Public Health Division. The Board replaced the Nursing Home Administrators Board as part of the 2018 residential care administrator law (HB 4129, 2018 Or. Laws c.61). The Office is at 1430 Tandem Ave. NE, Suite 180, Salem, OR 97301-2192, phone (503) 378-8667, email hlo.info@odhsoha.oregon.gov.
The Board has nine members appointed by the Governor (ORS 678.800). The law is ORS 678.710 to 678.820; the Board’s rules are OAR chapter 853, Divisions 020 to 060, and the Office’s general rules are OAR chapter 331. Nursing homes themselves are regulated by a different agency, the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), under OAR 411-085 and 411-086.
ORS 678.730 sets the basics: “a baccalaureate degree from an accredited school of higher education”, the exam under ORS 678.740 and the Board’s training. People licensed before 1 January 1983 are exempt from the degree, and one year as administrator of a dual facility takes the place of the training. OAR 853-030-0000 turns this into five pathways:
| Route | What you need | Exams | Pathway |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIT program | A bachelor’s degree (transcript) and a completed Certificate of Training from the 960-hour AIT program | NAB exams and the state exam, each passed within 1 year before or after the application date | 1 |
| Dual-facility experience | 1 year as administrator of a dual facility (ORS 678.710), and a bachelor’s degree | NAB exams and the state exam, each within 1 year before or after | 2 |
| Advanced education and experience | A “postgraduate degree in management” and 10 years of health care management experience | The rule lists no exam for this pathway | 3 |
| Licensed in another state (endorsement) | An affidavit of an active NHA license in another U.S. state or territory whose requirements are “at least equivalent to those in ORS 678.730”, with no current or pending discipline | The rule lists no exam for this pathway | 4 |
| Licensed in another state before 1983 | As pathway 4, with the original license issued before 1 January 1983 | The state exam, within 1 year before or after | 5 |
The Administrator-in-Training (AIT) program “consists of 960 hours of Preceptor-supervised training” (OAR 853-030-0040(1)). “An AIT program applicant must be registered before beginning the AIT program” (0040(2)); registration costs $100.
Your preceptor registers with the Office (OAR 853-030-0030, 0045):
Other states: AIT Hours by State.
The free AIT Planner helps you plan your AIT hours across facility departments. Oregon’s Training Packet already divides the 960 hours into five areas (336, 144, 144, 96 and 240 hours), so fit any plan to those areas and agree on it with your preceptor. No account needed.
Open the free AIT PlannerOregon’s AIT and dual-facility routes require the NAB exams (OAR 853-030-0000), and NAB lists both for Oregon: the Core of Knowledge (CORE) and the NHA Line of Service. NAB (the National Association of Long Term Care Administrator Boards) gives them at Pearson VUE after the Office approves you. The figures are from NAB’s Candidate Handbook (September 2026):
| Core of Knowledge | 125 questions (100 scored, 25 pretest), 150 minutes in all, 130 of them for answering questions |
|---|---|
| NHA Line of Service | 75 questions (60 scored, 15 pretest), 90 minutes in all, 70 of them for answering questions |
| Passing score | A scaled score of 113 on each |
| Fee | $480 for CORE and NHA applied for together, from 1 February 2026, paid to NAB. Taken alone, CORE is $320 and NHA is $190 |
| NAB attempts | Since 1 January 2026, up to 4 attempts at each exam per cycle (1 July to 30 June) |
| Oregon window | Passed “within one year before or one year after the application date” (OAR 853-030-0000) |
The Office’s license page still describes a single 150-question, three-hour NAB exam; NAB’s handbook describes the two separate exams above, and NAB sets the format. More in NAB Exam Format and The Core Domains Explained.
Oregon’s state exam is the Nursing Home Administrators Oregon Laws and Rules Examination (OAR 853-030-0050). You take it on pathways 1, 2 and 5; the rule lists no exam for pathway 3 or for endorsement (pathway 4).
| Who gives it | The Office itself, walk-in at 1430 Tandem Ave. NE, Suite 180, Salem, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday to Friday (the Office’s license page) |
|---|---|
| Format | “100 multiple-choice questions” (license page) |
| Passing score | “The Board-approved passing score on both laws and rules examinations is 75 percent” (OAR 853-030-0050) |
| Fee | $125 (OAR 853-040-0000). Retakes “are subject to examination fees and the examination schedule set by the Office”; the rule sets no waiting period or attempt limit (OAR 853-030-0060) |
| Timing | Passed within 1 year before or after the application date (OAR 853-030-0000) |
| On the day | Notes, textbooks, smart watches and cell phones are banned, and cheating can mean disqualification and loss of fees (OAR 853-030-0050) |
The Office’s exam information bulletin is dated “Revised February 1, 2014” and uses the old board name, but the Office still links it. It splits the 100 questions this way: Resident Care and Quality of Life, 34; Human Resources, 14; Finance, 14; Physical Environment, 9; Leadership and Management, 25; and Continuing Education, Practice Standards and Professional Conduct, 4. It names the rules to study: OAR 411 Division 070, OAR 411 Divisions 085 to 089 and OAR 853 Divisions 050 to 060.
Our suggestion, not the bulletin’s: the Office now lists OAR 853 Divisions 020 to 060 as the Board’s rules, so also read ORS 678.710 to 678.820 and OAR 853 Divisions 020 to 040. More in State NHA Exams Explained.
Six places where Oregon sets a number, or adds a requirement, compared with 42 CFR Part 483. All six come from the DHS nursing facility rules (OAR 411-085 and 411-086) and ORS chapter 441:
| Topic | Federal rule (42 CFR 483) | Oregon rule | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nursing assistant staffing | Sufficient nursing staff, including nurse aides, on a 24-hour basis (483.35(a)(1)), with no numeric ratio and no hours-per-resident-day minimum. CMS repealed the 2024 minimum staffing standards, which were never enforced, by interim final rule published 3 December 2025 (90 FR 55687, effective 2 February 2026) | Minimum ratios by shift: “1 nursing assistant per 7 residents” on days, “1 nursing assistant per 9.5 residents” on evenings and “1 nursing assistant per 17 residents” at night | OAR 411-086-0100(5)(c)(C) |
| Registered nurse hours | A registered nurse “for at least 8 consecutive hours a day, 7 days a week”, unless waived (483.35(b)(1)); no per-resident RN minimum | “no less than one RN hour per resident per week”, plus an RN charge nurse for 8 consecutive hours daily | OAR 411-086-0100(4)(a), (4)(e)(A) |
| Director of nursing | A registered nurse as director of nursing “on a full-time basis”, unless waived (483.35(b)(2)) | The director of nursing services works “full-time (40-hours per week) in a single nursing facility” | OAR 411-086-0020(1) |
| The administrator | The administrator must be “Licensed by the State, where licensing is required” (483.70(d)(2)(i)); Part 483 sets no weekly hours | “a full-time Oregon licensed nursing home administrator”, and Division approval before any absence of more than 30 days | OAR 411-086-0010(1), (3)(b) |
| Reporting abuse | Alleged violations reported to the administrator and to officials including the State Survey Agency “immediately, but not later than 2 hours” if they involve abuse or serious bodily injury, otherwise within 24 hours (483.12(c)(1)); investigation results within 5 working days (483.12(c)(4)) | Staff and other listed reporters are “required to immediately report abuse and suspected abuse” to DHS or law enforcement (OAR 411-085-0360(2)); ORS 441.645 requires an oral report “immediately by telephone or otherwise” to the local area agency on aging, DHS or law enforcement. All three apply | OAR 411-085-0360(2); ORS 441.645 |
| Nursing assistant in-service | Nurse aides get “no less than 12 hours per year”, including dementia management and abuse prevention (483.95(g)) | “a minimum of three hours of inservice training each calendar quarter”, with yearly topics that include resident rights under ORS 441, abuse law and “Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias”. Both rules apply | OAR 411-086-0310(2) |
The federal nursing home rules (42 CFR Part 483, Subpart B) apply only to facilities certified for Medicare or Medicaid, so a certified Oregon home must meet both sets of rules. Federal text as of September 2026.
We build practice sets for state exams one state at a time: questions drawn from the state’s own rules, each cited to its section, the way our Illinois supplement is built. Oregon is not built yet. Leave your email and we will tell you if we build it.
One email, only about an Oregon practice set. We never share it.
Thanks. You are on the list for Oregon.
Start with the Office’s preceptor list. The Office publishes its registered preceptor list (PDF, Excel), sorted by city, with each preceptor’s license number, email and a “Valid Until” date; it had 44 entries in September 2026. Then register with the AIT Registration Application.
LeadingAge Oregon runs Preceptor Training for Nursing Home Administrators, which it calls a “state-approved training program”: NAB’s four-module online preceptor training (5 CEUs) plus an Oregon rules webinar ($129 for members, $159 for others). The page is about training preceptors, not about placing AITs.
Other groups. The Oregon Health Care Association (OHCA) points future administrators to the Office for licenses; the 40-hour administrator course it promotes is for assisted living and residential care administrators, not nursing home administrators.
For the full step-by-step on approaching facilities and preceptors, see How to Find an AIT Preceptor and an Approved Program.
The Office’s fees are set in OAR 853-040-0000; NAB’s exam fees are paid to NAB.
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| License application | $100 |
| AIT registration; preceptor registration | $100 each |
| Oregon laws and rules exam | $125 |
| License issuance, including by endorsement | $130 a year |
| Annual renewal | $130 |
| Delinquency (late renewal) | $50 a year, up to 3 years |
| Provisional license | $50 to apply and $50 to issue |
| NAB exams, paid to NAB | $480 for CORE and NHA together; $320 for CORE or $190 for NHA alone |
You need “a minimum of 10 hours of continuing education every authorization year” (OAR 853-050-0000, in the version effective 1 October 2022). NAB’s Oregon summary shows a different figure; the Oregon rule governs.
Renewal. A license “becomes not current on the last day of the month, one year from the date of issuance” (OAR 331-030-0010(3)), so each license renews in its own month. You submit the renewal form, attest to your CE and pay $130 (OAR 853-030-0070). The Office “may send a renewal notice”, but renewing on time is your job whether or not one arrives (331-030-0010(8)).
If your license lapses. It becomes inactive, and “A license holder may not practice with an inactive or expired license.” It can stay “inactive for up to three years”; to reactivate it, you pay the $50 delinquency fee for each year plus renewal fees and attest to your CE (OAR 853-030-0070; 853-040-0000). After more than 3 years it is expired, and you apply again under the current requirements (853-030-0070(4); 331-030-0010(7)). While you are on active military duty, you need not renew or pay renewal fees (OAR 331-010-0050).
Recent changes. HB 4040 (2026) changes the degree rules for residential care facility administrators (ORS 678.733) from 1 January 2027; it does not change the nursing home administrator qualifications in ORS 678.730.
Endorsement. ORS 678.770 lets the Board license “by endorsement” someone licensed in another state or territory if that state’s requirements are “not less than those required by ORS 678.710 to 678.820”. Pathways 4 and 5 in the table above carry this out.
Provisional license (OAR 853-030-0010). Only for an emergency such as those listed above, “not to exceed six months” (the Office’s license page). You need a formal request from the facility’s owner or manager explaining the emergency, and you must qualify under pathway 2, 3, 4 or 5 or already work there as assistant administrator or director of nursing.
Military spouses and domestic partners (OAR 331-010-0055 and 0060). One temporary authorization is “valid for three months and may not be renewed”. Another, for spouses only, lasts up to 2 years (less if the service member’s Oregon term or your other-state license ends first) and requires at least 1 year of practice in the 3 years before you apply. The first requires an attestation, and the second an affidavit, of no discipline.
The laws, rules and other sources cited on this page.
Citations verified September 2026. The official OAR text is published by the Oregon Secretary of State; the Office’s rules copy is marked unofficial, and the oregon.public.law links are labeled mirrors. For reference, not legal advice; the current official text governs.
960 hours of preceptor-supervised training, completed in no less than 6 months and no more than 2 years after the Office approves your registration (OAR 853-030-0040). One waiver of 80, 160 or 450 hours is possible, and the Office’s AIT Training Packet splits the hours into five areas.
On the AIT and dual-facility routes: the NAB Core of Knowledge and NHA Line of Service exams, with a scaled score of 113 on each, and the Oregon laws and rules exam, with 75 percent to pass, each within 1 year before or after you apply (OAR 853-030-0000, 853-030-0050). The rule lists no exam for the postgraduate-degree and endorsement routes.
The Nursing Home Administrators Oregon Laws and Rules Examination: 100 multiple-choice questions, 75 percent to pass and $125, taken walk-in at the Health Licensing Office in Salem from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays. It is required on pathways 1, 2 and 5 of OAR 853-030-0000.
10 hours every year, including at least 1 hour of cultural competency every other year, with no carryover (OAR 853-050-0000). The license renews every year for $130.
Start with the Health Licensing Office’s registered preceptor list, sorted by city. LeadingAge Oregon runs preceptor training for administrators who want to become preceptors.
A guided daily path of 100 NAB-style questions across all 4 domains, automatic weak-spot training, and a weekly timed Checkpoint Exam. Try 5 free questions first, no account needed.
Try 5 free questionsSee pricing