Protocol · RN · Vermont
Practice Protocol for Registered Nurses in Vermont
Registered Nurses practice independently in Vermont. 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-agreement requirements in Vermont; the Nurse Practice Act (26 V.S.A. ch. 28) defines RN practice without a physician-oversight condition.
What a voluntary Registered Nurse protocol covers in Vermont
Vermont requires no written protocol for registered nurses. These are the clauses a practice includes when it chooses to put one in writing. The Vermont Board of Nursing governs registered nurses here.
The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the orders, standing orders, or delegation of the Physician. Vermont 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 Vermont 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 Vermont; 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 agreement, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure does not require a healing-arts PC — non-clinical businesses an RN might own (staffing agency, home health agency) fall under general corporation/LLC law and carry no ownership restriction. H.583's new majority-licensee requirements target 'medical practices' employing physicians, not general RN-run businesses.
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
About Vermont's rules
H.583 (signed June 15, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026) newly restricts private-equity/hedge-fund control and requires majority physician ownership/governance of medical practices — a major shift from Vermont's historically permissive, no-common-law-CPOM stance. All 4 APRN roles (NP, CRNA, CNM, CNS/PMHNP) share one 2,400-hour/2-year transition-to-practice threshold (26 V.S.A. § 1614) — treat as newly in effect and monitor implementing guidance.
Other clinicians in Vermont: see the state overview.