Practice Agreement · RN

Registered Nurse Practice Agreement in Illinois

Illinois 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.

Practice authorityIndependent practice
Written agreementNo agreement required
What Illinois calls itNo instrument required
Governing boardIllinois Board of Nursing
Research date2026-09-03 · clauses 2026-09-03

RNs (general licensure, not an APRN) are not subject to physician-supervision or collaborative-agreement requirements in Illinois (225 ILCS 65).

What a Registered Nurse practice agreement covers in Illinois

Governed by the Illinois Board of Nursing. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.

  1. The Registered Nurse ("RN") shall practice under the orders, standing orders, or delegation of the Physician, consistent with the Illinois Nurse Practice Act, 225 ILCS 65. Illinois law does not require a Written 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.

  2. The agreement on file also carries 2 scope, 2 education, 2 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.

Statutes and rules cited

  1. Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Professional Regulation (Pharmacy)board guidance

    State agency administering the Illinois Pharmacy Practice Act (225 ILCS 85) and pharmacist licensure; primary source for any collaborative-pharmacy-practice rulemaking.

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 Illinois.

Written agreement

Not required

Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement in Illinois.

Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)

Licensee-only ownership required — Professional service corporation (805 ILCS 10) or PLLC (805 ILCS 185) for nursing services; non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside that regime and carry no ownership restriction.

For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) businesses performing delegated medical procedures, Illinois delegation rules (Medical Practice Act, Ill. Admin. Code tit. 68, § 1285.336) allow delegation to LPNs/RNs/APRNs, but ownership of the clinical entity itself remains a Medical Corporation Act question, not this general nursing-corporation rule.

Legal sources for these rules (2)
  • 225 ILCS 65 — Nurse Practice Act
  • 805 ILCS 15 — Medical Corporation Act

About Illinois's rules

The 2017 Nurse Practice Act reform (P.A. 100-0513) lets NP/CNM/CNS attest to full practice authority after 4,000 hours under a written collaborative agreement plus 250 hours of CE — CRNAs are not included in that attestation pathway. The Medical Corporation Act (805 ILCS 15) restricts clinical-entity ownership to physicians; APRNs/PAs may still use a professional service corporation or PLLC of their own licensees.

Other clinicians in Illinois: see the state overview.