Protocol · RN · Montana
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Montana
Registered Nurses practice independently in Montana. 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 Montana; RN practice is governed by the Nurse Practice Act and Board of Nursing conduct rules (ARM 24.159.2301) without a physician-oversight gate.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Montana
Montana requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Montana 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 Title 37, chapter 8, of the Montana Code Annotated. Montana law does not require a collaboration or supervision 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 Montana 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 Montana; they administer medications only under a valid order from an authorized prescriber.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure does not require formation of a healing-arts Professional Corporation (Title 35, ch. 4, MCA) — an RN may own non-clinical businesses (staffing, home health, the MSO/business side of a med-spa) without the ownership restriction that applies to entities delivering physician/APRN-level clinical services.
For medical-aesthetics businesses performing procedures reserved to physicians/APRNs (Botox, most lasers — see the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists' 2024 Med-Spa FAQ), RN ownership of the business entity does not itself confer authority to perform those procedures.
Sources for the supervision rules (3)
About Montana's rules
House Bill 810 (2023) would have imposed a 2-year physician/NP-collaboration requirement on APRNs; it was referred to committee and this research could not confirm it became law — current APRN statute text found shows no such requirement, so NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS are coded as independent, but verify this hasn't changed before relying on it. Montana repealed its corporate-practice-of-medicine statute in 1995; CPOM entries below reflect residual board rule, not a clear statutory line.
Other clinicians in Montana: see the state overview.