Protocol · RN · Utah
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Utah
Registered Nurses practice independently in Utah. 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-practice-agreement requirements in Utah; RN practice under § 58-31b is defined without a physician-oversight condition, in contrast to Utah's separate, narrower LPN/CNA license tiers.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Utah
Utah requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Utah 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 Utah Code § 58-31b. Utah law does not require a supervision or 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, 1 education and 2 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
What Utah 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 Utah; they administer medications only as ordered by an authorized prescriber.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative-practice agreement in Utah.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure does not require a healing-arts PC/PLLC — non-clinical businesses an RN might own (staffing agency, home health agency) fall under general corporation/LLC law and carry no ownership restriction.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) businesses performing delegated medical procedures, RN ownership of the business entity does not remove the need for physician delegation and oversight of the procedures themselves.
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
About Utah's rules
S.B. 36 (2023) eliminated the physician-collaboration/contract requirement for ALL APRN roles (NP, CRNA, CNM, CNS), not just NPs — Utah is a full-independence state across the APRN scope. PAs remain on a separate, hours-tiered collaboration model (Utah Code § 58-70a-307) with no numeric ratio cap or chart-review percentage codified.
Other clinicians in Utah: see the state overview.