Protocol · NP · Kansas
Practice Protocol for Nurse Practitioners in Kansas
Nurse Practitioners practice independently in Kansas. A practice protocol is voluntary; here is what one covers and what the state does require.
Senate Sub. for H.B. 2279 (eff. 7/1/2022) removed all supervising-physician/collaborative-practice-agreement/prescribing-protocol language from K.S.A. 65-1130 — an NP may practice and prescribe under their own license with no experience threshold, subject only to malpractice insurance, national certification, and DEA registration requirements.
What a voluntary Nurse Practitioner protocol covers in Kansas
Kansas requires no written protocol for nurse practitioners. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Kansas State Board of Nursing and the Kansas State Board of Pharmacy governs nurse practitioners here.
Kansas does not require the Nurse Practitioner to enter into a supervision or collaboration agreement with a physician for diagnosis, treatment, or prescribing, including controlled substances subject to DEA and Kansas State Board of Pharmacy registration, consistent with KSA 65-1130, as amended by 2022 House Bill 2279. The Nurse Practitioner practices under the Nurse Practitioner's own license.
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, and are not themselves required by Kansas law as a condition of the Nurse Practitioner's authority to practice.
- A voluntary protocol also carries 1 scope, 1 education and 1 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What Kansas does require
The supervision and prescribing rules that apply to nurse practitioners regardless of any protocol.
Proximity
No proximity requirement
No physician availability/proximity standard applies post-2022 reform (K.S.A. 65-1130, as amended).
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified
Meeting cadence
Not codified
Prescriptive authority
No agreement needed to prescribe · controlled substances permitted
May prescribe controlled substances without a physician-authored prescribing protocol; may NOT prescribe any drug intended to cause an abortion (K.S.A. 65-1130, as amended). Requires DEA registration.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional since 7/1/2022. A hospital or physician's refusal to enter a voluntary collaborative arrangement does not limit an NP's right to practice (K.S.A. 65-1130, as amended).
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Combined-profession professional corporation or LLC of MDs, DOs, registered nurses (including NPs), physician assistants, occupational therapists, audiologists and speech-pathologists; no physician-majority requirement identified
Sources for the supervision rules (3)
About Kansas's rules
Senate Sub. for H.B. 2279 (eff. July 1, 2022) made Kansas a full-practice-authority state for all APRN categories (NP/PMHNP/CRNA/CNM/CNS) — no collaborative practice agreement, supervising physician, or prescribing protocol is required, with no experience threshold. The Kansas Medical Society has publicly disputed how far Board of Nursing regulations implementing this reform extend, calling some language an unauthorized expansion into medical practice — an unresolved legal/political dispute, not settled law. PAs are unaffected by this reform and remain supervised.
Other clinicians in Kansas: see the state overview.