Practice Agreement · RN
Registered Nurse Practice Agreement in Louisiana
Louisiana 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-practice-agreement requirements in Louisiana. The Nurse Practice Act (R.S. 37:913) defines the practice of registered nursing around independent nursing judgment and the nursing process, categorically different from an APRN's CPA-gated diagnosis/prescribing authority.
What a Registered Nurse practice agreement covers in Louisiana
Governed by the Louisiana 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. Unlike the Collaborative Practice Agreement required of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, Louisiana law does not require such an 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
- Louisiana Board of Pharmacyboard guidance
State board administering the Louisiana Pharmacy Practice Act (La. R.S. 37:1161 et seq.) and its Collaborative Drug Therapy Management rules (La. Admin. Code tit. 46, Pt. LIII, Ch. 5).
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 Louisiana; they administer medications only as ordered/prescribed by a provider authorized by law to prescribe.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative-practice/order-set agreement in Louisiana, unlike the APRN/PA/pharmacist categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional Corporation/LLC under La. R.S. 12:901 et seq. for nursing services; not independently confirmed for RN-specific entity structures in this research pass. Non-clinical businesses an RN might own (staffing agency, general wellness business) fall outside this framework entirely.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) businesses performing medical procedures (e.g. Botox, laser), an RN likely may not independently own the clinical entity performing those procedures — by analogy to the NC/VA pattern in this dataset, not independently confirmed against Louisiana statute.
Legal sources for these rules (2)
About Louisiana's rules
Louisiana remains a 'reduced practice' state for NPs — no SAVE Act-style full-practice-authority reform has passed. LA Admin. Code tit. 46 §7911.A.5 references an hours-based exemption from the CPA requirement for NP/CNM/CNS, but secondary sources give conflicting hour figures (1,000 vs. 2,080) and this pass could not confirm the exact threshold or resulting scope — verify directly with LSBN before relying on it.
Other clinicians in Louisiana: see the state overview.