Practice Agreement · RN
Registered Nurse Practice Agreement in Delaware
Delaware 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.
RNs (general licensure, not an APRN) are not subject to physician-supervision or collaborative-agreement requirements in Delaware — RN scope of practice under 24 Del.C. Ch. 19 carries no physician-oversight language, in contrast to the APRN transition-to-practice rule above.
What a Registered Nurse practice agreement covers in Delaware
Governed by the Delaware 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 24 Del. C. ch. 19. Delaware 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, 2 education, 2 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.
Statutes and rules cited
- 24 Del. C. § 2502statute
Defines 'collaborative pharmacy practice' and 'collaborative pharmacy practice agreement.'
- 24 Del. C. § 1771statute
Limits a collaborating physician to concurrently collaborating with no more than four Physician Assistants absent a Board exemption.
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 Delaware; they administer medications only as prescribed by an authorized prescriber.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement in Delaware, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional (service) corporation under 8 Del.C. Ch. 6, owned by nursing licensees for clinical nursing services; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside Ch. 6 entirely and carry no ownership restriction.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) work involving delegated medical procedures, RN ownership of the clinical entity is a separate, unresolved question from this general nursing-corporation rule — not independently confirmed in this research pass.
Legal sources for these rules (2)
About Delaware's rules
Delaware grants full independent practice to APRNs (NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS) after a uniform 2-year/4,000-hour transition period (24 Del.C. § 1906(20); 24 DE Admin. Code 1900 § 8.0) — this research pass treats that rule as applying identically across all four APRN roles; confirm role-specific nuance with the Board of Nursing before relying on it. PAs have no independent-practice pathway.
Other clinicians in Delaware: see the state overview.