Protocol · RN · Illinois
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Illinois
Registered Nurses practice independently in Illinois. 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 Illinois (225 ILCS 65).
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Illinois
Illinois requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Illinois 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 the Illinois Nurse Practice Act, 225 ILCS 65. Illinois law does not require a Written Collaborative 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 Illinois 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 Illinois.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement in Illinois.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional service corporation (805 ILCS 10) or PLLC (805 ILCS 185) for nursing services; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside that regime and carry no ownership restriction.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) businesses performing delegated medical procedures, Illinois delegation rules (Medical Practice Act, Ill. Admin. Code tit. 68, § 1285.336) allow delegation to LPNs/RNs/APRNs, but ownership of the clinical entity itself remains a Medical Corporation Act question, not this general nursing-corporation rule.
Sources for the supervision rules (2)
- 225 ILCS 65 — Nurse Practice Act
- 805 ILCS 15 — Medical Corporation Act
About Illinois's rules
The 2017 Nurse Practice Act reform (P.A. 100-0513) lets NP/CNM/CNS attest to full practice authority after 4,000 hours under a written collaborative agreement plus 250 hours of CE — CRNAs are not included in that attestation pathway. The Medical Corporation Act (805 ILCS 15) restricts clinical-entity ownership to physicians; APRNs/PAs may still use a professional service corporation or PLLC of their own licensees.
Other clinicians in Illinois: see the state overview.