Protocol · RN · Maine
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Maine
Registered Nurses practice independently in Maine. 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 Maine. RNs practice under a physician's orders, standing orders, or delegation, consistent with the Maine Nurse Practice Act — categorically different from the APRN frameworks above.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Maine
Maine requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Maine State Board of Nursing governs registered nurses here.
The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the standing orders, protocols, or delegation of the Physician. Maine law does not require a Board-filed 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, protocol, or delegation.
- A voluntary protocol also carries 2 scope, 1 education and 2 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What Maine 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 Maine; 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 Maine.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside the physician and APRN professional-entity questions
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
- 32 M.R.S. Title 32, Chapter 31 — Maine Nurse Practice Act
About Maine's rules
Maine's provider categories follow different independence models: NPs graduate to full practice after 24 months of registered (not written-agreement) supervision; PAs graduate after 4,000 documented clinical hours but still need a lighter 'practice agreement' afterward; CNMs/CNSs appear independent from initial licensure; and CRNAs remain physician/dentist-accountable except in critical-access/rural hospitals. Do not assume a single APRN framework applies uniformly.
Other clinicians in Maine: see the state overview.