Practice Agreement · RN
Registered Nurse Practice Agreement in Arizona
Arizona law does not require a Registered Nurse to hold a named agreement with a physician. Practices still use one to define the working relationship; here is what it covers and what the state does require.
General RN licensure (A.R.S. Title 32 Ch. 15) carries no independent-practice or physician-supervision framework — RN practice is inherently order-driven and institutional rather than a collaborative/independent-practice category.
What a Registered Nurse practice agreement covers in Arizona
Governed by the Arizona State Board of Nursing. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.
The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the orders, standing orders, or delegation of the Physician, consistent with A.R.S. § 32-1601 et seq. Arizona 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.
- The agreement on file also carries 2 scope, 1 education, 2 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.
Statutes and rules cited
- A.R.S. § 32-1970statute
Authorizes a collaborative practice agreement between a pharmacist and a provider with prescriptive authority to initiate, monitor, and modify drug therapy or provide disease management assistance; sets required agreement contents.
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
Not codified — left to the agreement
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
Covered by the practice agreement · no controlled-substance authority
RNs do not have independent prescriptive authority in Arizona.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to a physician-supervision or collaborative-agreement requirement.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — RN licensure carries no entity-ownership framework of its own; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall under general Title 10 corporate law with no profession-specific restriction.
Legal sources for these rules (1)
About Arizona's rules
Arizona has no explicit statutory CPOM ban; existing doctrine comes only from two optometry cases never applied to physician/PA ownership, making MSO tolerance a reasonable inference rather than a confirmed rule. NP/CNM/PMHNP have FULL practice authority with no collaborative agreement. PA's 2024 reform (A.R.S. Title 32 Ch. 25) removes the written agreement at 8,000 hours but still requires a designated collaborating physician/entity.
Other clinicians in Arizona: see the state overview.