Collaborative Practice Agreement · NP
West Virginia Written Collaborative Agreement for Nurse Practitioners
Required. The Written Collaborative Agreement is the written instrument West Virginia law names for a Nurse Practitioner working with a physician. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
West Virginia is a 'reduced practice' (not 'restricted') state: NPs may diagnose and treat independently from licensure, but a written collaborative agreement is required specifically to prescribe until the 3-year threshold is met and the Board approves independent prescriptive authority.
Independent practice requires: for prescribing specifically: ≥3 years in a documented collaborative relationship with granted prescriptive authority, then Board of Nursing approval to prescribe without an ongoing collaborative agreement.
What a West Virginia Written Collaborative Agreement must contain
Governed by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses and the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.
Unless the Nurse Practitioner has at least three (3) years of documented collaborative prescriptive practice and has been approved by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses to prescribe without further collaboration, the Nurse Practitioner shall practice pursuant to a written collaborative agreement with the Physician for prescriptive authority, as required by W. Va. Code §§ 30-7-15a and 30-7-15b.
The collaborative agreement shall set out mutually agreed written guidelines or protocols for the Nurse Practitioner's prescriptive authority, a statement of the Parties' individual and shared responsibilities, and provide for periodic joint evaluation of the Nurse Practitioner's prescriptive practice and periodic joint review and update of the protocols, as required by § 30-7-15b(c).
- The Written Collaborative Agreement on file also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.
Statutes and rules cited
- W. Va. Code §§ 30-5-18, 30-5-19; W. Va. Code St. R. tit. 11, ser. 8 (Boards of Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, and Pharmacy Joint Rule for Collaborative Pharmacy Practice)board guidance
West Virginia Board of Pharmacy's own description of the collaborative pharmacy practice notification process, eligibility, and scope limits.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the agreement has to carry, from the state's supervision rules.
Proximity
below the 3-year independent-prescriptive-authority threshold: Available remotely (no on-site requirement)
No codified mile/minute radius or on-site requirement located; the collaborative agreement need only set out mutually agreed written guidelines/protocols and periodic joint evaluation.
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
below the 3-year independent-prescriptive-authority threshold: As needed
WV Board of Nursing's Collaborative Agreement form requires 'periodic joint evaluation of prescriptive practice' and 'periodic joint review and updating' of the guidelines/protocols — no fixed numeric cadence (e.g. monthly/quarterly) was located, so this is coded as AS_NEEDED rather than a specific interval.
Prescriptive authority
below the 3-year independent-prescriptive-authority threshold: Separate prescribing terms required · controlled substances permitted
Schedule II-V from a limited formulary set by the collaborative agreement; Schedule II narcotics capped at a 3-day supply.
after Board approval of independent prescriptive authority (≥3 years): Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted
Whether the 3-day Schedule II cap persists after independent-prescriptive-authority approval was not confirmed in this research pass — flag as an open item rather than assuming it lifts.
Written agreement
Required
Required for prescriptive authority, not for diagnosis/treatment — WV's collaborative-agreement requirement is scoped to prescribing specifically, unlike most other states on file where the agreement gates the whole scope of practice.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — West Virginia's Authorized Medical Corporation statute (§ 30-3-15) targets physician/podiatrist-delivered medical corporations specifically; whether NPs have an independent nursing-entity ownership pathway analogous to other states' APRN PLLC statutes was not confirmed in this research pass — treat as an open item.
Legal sources for these rules (3)
- WV Board of Registered Nurses — Collaborative Agreement Form and Instructions
- NursingLicensure.org — West Virginia NP Requirements [secondary source, used for the 3-day Schedule II detail and reduced-practice characterization]secondary
- NPCollaborator.com — West Virginia Nurse Practitioner Collaboration guide [secondary source]secondary
About West Virginia's rules
code.wvlegislature.gov would not serve statute text during this research pass (anomalous redirect, not followed) — sourcing below leans on WV Board of Nursing/Medicine/Pharmacy materials and secondary sources; confidence is lower than for states with direct statute access. SB 956 (2026), which would let PAs own practices and end mandatory collaboration, had NOT confirmed final passage/signature as of this research pass — treat PA entries below as the current, not the pending, law.
Other clinicians in West Virginia: see the state overview.