Protocol · RN · Arkansas
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Arkansas
Registered Nurses practice independently in Arkansas. A practice protocol is voluntary; here is what one covers and what the state does require.
RNs practice under the Arkansas Nurse Practice Act (§ 17-87-101 et seq.) within RN scope, which does not require physician supervision as a matter of licensure — standing orders/facility policy are an employment matter, not a statutory physician-supervision or CPA requirement like the APRN/DSM-pharmacist tiers above.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Arkansas
Arkansas requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Arkansas State Board of Nursing governs registered nurses here.
The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the orders, standing orders, or delegation of the Physician. Unlike the Collaborative Practice Agreement required of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, Arkansas law does not require such an 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, 2 education and 2 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What Arkansas 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 Arkansas.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — no CPA, independence threshold, or FIPCC pathway applies to base RN licensure.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — Not applicable to RN licensure as such — no RN-specific ownership restriction was found.
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
- Ark. Code Ann. § 17-87-101 et seq. — Arkansas Nurse Practice Act
About Arkansas's rules
Act 412 of 2021 created a 6,240-hour Full Independent Practice Credentialing Committee (FIPCC) pathway for CNPs and CNSs only — CRNAs and CNMs are excluded from FIPCC and follow their own frameworks. CRNA independent-practice status is a genuine, unresolved ambiguity (see that entry) — a widely repeated 'Medicare opt-out' claim doesn't equal a change to AR's own supervision statute.
Other clinicians in Arkansas: see the state overview.