Protocol · RN · Delaware
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Delaware
Registered Nurses practice independently in Delaware. A practice protocol is voluntary; here is what one covers and what the state does require.
RNs (general licensure, not an APRN) are not subject to physician-supervision or collaborative-agreement requirements in Delaware — RN scope of practice under 24 Del.C. Ch. 19 carries no physician-oversight language, in contrast to the APRN transition-to-practice rule above.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Delaware
Delaware requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Delaware 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 24 Del. C. ch. 19. Delaware 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, 2 education and 2 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What Delaware 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 Delaware; they administer medications only as prescribed by an authorized prescriber.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement in Delaware, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional (service) corporation under 8 Del.C. Ch. 6, owned by nursing licensees for clinical nursing services; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside Ch. 6 entirely and carry no ownership restriction.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) work involving delegated medical procedures, RN ownership of the clinical entity is a separate question from this general nursing-corporation rule.
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.