Protocol · RN · New Hampshire
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in New Hampshire
Registered Nurses practice independently in New Hampshire. 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 agreement requirements in NH. RSA 326-B:12 defines RN practice (managing, supervising, and evaluating nursing care) with no physician-supervision language, in contrast to RSA 326-B:13's LPN scope, which is explicitly practiced 'under the supervision of' an RN, APRN, physician, or dentist.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in New Hampshire
New Hampshire requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The New Hampshire 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 N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. ch. 326-B. New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 NH; they administer medications as ordered by a provider authorized by law to prescribe.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or an agreement requirement in NH, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure does not require a Professional Corporation (RSA 294-A) in the first place. Non-clinical businesses an RN might own (home health agency, staffing agency, general wellness business) carry no licensee-ownership restriction; whether RNs are separately enumerated as 'qualified persons' eligible to co-own a nursing-services PC under RSA 294-A was not independently confirmed.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) businesses performing delegated medical procedures, ownership of the clinical entity and physician delegation of the procedure itself are separate questions.
Sources for the supervision rules (2)
About New Hampshire's rules
RSA 326-B:11 gives all APRN categories (NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS) plenary, independent practice authority with no supervising-physician or collaborative-agreement requirement and no experience-based transition period — unlike NC/VA. PA title changes to 'physician associate' effective 1/1/2027 (not yet live). NH has no independent corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine; secondary sources disagree on how far that extends — verify before relying on any CPOM entry below.
Other clinicians in New Hampshire: see the state overview.