Protocol · RN · South Dakota
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in South Dakota
Registered Nurses practice independently in South Dakota. A practice protocol is voluntary; here is what one covers and what the state does require.
General RN licensure (SDCL 36-9-3) is not subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement — RN practice explicitly includes 'independent nursing strategies' alongside regimens ordered by authorized providers, in contrast to practical (LPN) nursing, which SD's statute defines as performed under a 'supervising health care provider.'
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in South Dakota
South Dakota requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The South Dakota Board of Nursing governs registered nurses here.
The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the orders, standing orders, or delegation of the Physician. South Dakota law does not require a collaborative 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, 1 education and 2 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What South Dakota 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 SD; they implement regimens 'requested, ordered, or prescribed by authorized health care providers.'
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement in SD, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — As for NPs: South Dakota's professional-corporation statute for nursing services should be checked
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
About South Dakota's rules
SD is unusually permissive: NP/CNM need only 1,040 practice hours (or a collaborative agreement with ANY physician OR already-independent NP/CNM) to become fully independent (SDCL 36-9A), and a 2025 reform (SL 2025, ch 149) gives PAs the same kind of pathway after 6,000 hours plus NCCPA certification. Older sources citing a fixed PA-per-physician ratio are now outdated — that cap was repealed.
Other clinicians in South Dakota: see the state overview.