Protocol · RN · Kansas
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Kansas
Registered Nurses practice independently in Kansas. 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 a physician-supervision or collaborative-practice-agreement requirement in Kansas. RNs practice under a physician's orders, standing orders, or delegation, consistent with the Kansas Nurse Practice Act — categorically different from the collaborative-practice framework that (pre-2022) applied to APRNs.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Kansas
Kansas requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Kansas State 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 KSA Chapter 65, Article 11. Kansas law does not require a supervision or 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 Kansas 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 Kansas; they administer medications pursuant to the orders of a licensed prescriber.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure has never been subject to a physician collaboration/supervision agreement in Kansas.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure; the physician-only professional-corporation regime does not apply to non-clinical businesses an RN might own
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
- K.S.A. 65-1113 et seq. — Kansas Nurse Practice Act
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.