Protocol · RN · Rhode Island
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Rhode Island
Registered Nurses practice independently in Rhode Island. A practice protocol is voluntary; here is what one covers and what the state does require.
General RN licensure (R.I. Gen. Laws Ch. 5-34) is not subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement — RNs practice within physician orders, standing orders, and facility protocols, categorically distinct from an APRN's independent-practitioner status or a PA's collaboration requirement.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Rhode Island
Rhode Island requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Rhode Island 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 R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 5-34. Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island 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 RI; they administer medications per physician/APRN orders.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement in RI.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional Service Corporation under R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-5.1-1 et seq. — RNs are explicitly listed among eligible healing-arts licensees. Non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside this regime entirely.
Sources for the supervision rules (2)
- R.I. Gen. Laws Ch. 5-34 — Nursessecondary
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-5.1-1 et seq. — Professional Service Corporations
About Rhode Island's rules
RI is a Full Practice Authority state for NP/CNM (R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-34-44) and, since a 2019 reform (§ 5-54-8), no longer requires PAs to have a written practice agreement — 'collaboration' with an always-accessible physician replaced supervision and hospital ratio caps. CRNAs are the exception: RI has NOT taken the Medicare physician-supervision opt-out, and CRNA scope is statutorily bounded to the perioperative period.
Other clinicians in Rhode Island: see the state overview.