Protocol · RN · Oregon
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Oregon
Registered Nurses practice independently in Oregon. 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 in Oregon. ORS 678.010 defines the 'practice of registered nursing' as assessing, planning, ordering, giving, delegating, teaching, and supervising care with no physician-direction language, in contrast to LPN practice, which the statute ties to a medical or nursing plan of care.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Oregon
Oregon requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Oregon 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 ORS Chapter 678. Oregon law does not require a 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 Oregon 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 have no independent prescriptive authority in Oregon; they administer medications under the order of a provider authorized by law to prescribe.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or an agreement, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure does not require an ORS 58.375/58.376 professional corporation in the first place — RNs are not enumerated as eligible ORS 58.376 licensees, but also don't independently render the kind of licensed medical services those statutes govern. Non-clinical businesses an RN might own (home health agency, staffing agency) fall under general corporation/LLC law with no ownership restriction.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) businesses performing delegated medical procedures, RN ownership of the entity does not itself remove any physician-delegation requirement for the procedures; ownership and clinical-delegation authority are separate questions. The Oregon Medical Board's delegation rule for such procedures is not covered here.
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
About Oregon's rules
Oregon has no physician-supervision requirement for NP/CNS/CRNA and replaced PA 'supervision' with a non-supervisory 'collaboration agreement' (ORS 677.495-677.525, recodified by H.B. 4010, eff. June 6, 2024). CNM and PMHNP are population foci under the single NP license (OAR 851-050-0005), not separate license categories. CRNA/CNS entity co-ownership with physicians is unconfirmed — ORS 58.376 names only physicians, PAs, and NPs.
Other clinicians in Oregon: see the state overview.