Protocol · NP · Delaware
Practice Protocol for Nurse Practitioners in Delaware
Required. Delaware law names the instrument a Collaborative Agreement, and the clinical protocol is the content that instrument carries. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
Once the 2-year/4,000-hour transition-to-practice threshold is met, no collaborative agreement is required to continue practicing (24 Del.C. § 1906(20); 24 DE Admin. Code 1900 § 8.0).
Independent practice requires: ≥2 years of collaborative practice; ≥4,000 hours of clinical practice with a physician or experienced APRN in the same role/population focus.
What a Delaware Collaborative Agreement must contain
Governed by the Delaware Board of Nursing and the Delaware Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the Collaborative Agreement must satisfy.
Unless the Nurse Practitioner has completed two (2) years and four thousand (4,000) hours of collaboration, the Nurse Practitioner shall practice in collaboration with the Physician, or with a dentist, podiatrist, or licensed Delaware health care delivery system, to cooperate, coordinate, and consult as appropriate, pursuant to a collaborative agreement defined by Delaware Board of Nursing rule under 24 Del. C. § 1906. Once the Nurse Practitioner completes that period, the Nurse Practitioner may practice or prescribe independently under § 1906(a)(20).
This Agreement's terms regarding the Nurse Practitioner accordingly serve to define the working relationship, referral pathways, and any Medical Director oversight between the Parties for a Nurse Practitioner who has completed the collaboration period, and are not themselves required by Delaware law as a condition of that Nurse Practitioner's authority to practice.
- The Collaborative Agreement also carries 1 scope, 1 education and 1 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the Collaborative Agreement has to carry, from Delaware's supervision rules.
Proximity
below the 2-year/4,000-hour transition threshold: Available remotely (no on-site requirement)
No codified mile/minute radius or on-site requirement was found for the collaborative/mentorship relationship during the transition period (24 DE Admin. Code 1900 § 8.0).
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
below the 2-year/4,000-hour transition threshold: Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted
Full prescriptive authority, including controlled substances, is granted upon APRN licensure, subject to completing the transition requirements and standard DEA registration (24 Del.C. § 1906(20)).
at/after the 2-year/4,000-hour transition threshold: Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted
Independent prescriptive authority, no agreement-based restriction.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional (service) corporation under 8 Del.C. Ch. 6, owned by nursing licensees — non-licensees may not hold equity. Ch. 6 does not list a nurse+physician cross-license combination the way it does for medicine+podiatry.
Ownership is legally distinct from, and unaffected by, whether the NP has reached independent-practice status.
Sources for the supervision rules (2)
About Delaware's rules
Delaware grants full independent practice to APRNs (NP, CRNA, CNM, CNS) after a uniform 2-year, 4,000-hour transition period (24 Del.C. § 1906(20); 24 DE Admin. Code 1900 § 8.0). This entry applies that rule identically across the four APRN roles; confirm role-specific detail with the Board of Nursing. PAs have no independent-practice pathway.
Other clinicians in Delaware: see the state overview.