Protocol · RN · Arizona
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Arizona
Registered Nurses practice independently in Arizona. A practice protocol is voluntary; here is what one covers and what the state does require.
General RN licensure (A.R.S. Title 32 Ch. 15) carries no independent-practice or physician-supervision framework — RN practice is inherently order-driven and institutional rather than a collaborative/independent-practice category.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Arizona
Arizona requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Arizona State Board of Nursing governs registered nurses here.
The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the orders, standing orders, or delegation of the Physician, consistent with A.R.S. § 32-1601 et seq. Arizona law does not require a collaboration agreement for this Registered Nurse's general scope of practice; the Physician shall instead be available to the Registered Nurse for consultation regarding clinical and patient care issues arising under any order or delegation.
- A voluntary protocol also carries 2 scope, 1 education and 2 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What Arizona does require
The supervision and prescribing rules that apply to registered nurses regardless of any protocol.
Proximity
Not codified
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified
Meeting cadence
Not codified
Prescriptive authority
No agreement needed to prescribe · no controlled-substance authority
RNs do not have independent prescriptive authority in Arizona.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to a physician-supervision or collaborative-agreement requirement.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — RN licensure carries no entity-ownership framework of its own; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall under general Title 10 corporate law with no profession-specific restriction.
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
About Arizona's rules
Arizona has no explicit statutory CPOM ban; existing doctrine comes only from two optometry cases never applied to physician/PA ownership, making MSO tolerance a reasonable inference rather than a confirmed rule. NP/CNM/PMHNP have FULL practice authority with no collaborative agreement. PA's 2024 reform (A.R.S. Title 32 Ch. 25) removes the written agreement at 8,000 hours but still requires a designated collaborating physician/entity.
Other clinicians in Arizona: see the state overview.