Practice Agreement · RN
Registered Nurse Practice Agreement in Michigan
Michigan 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 a physician-supervision or collaborative-practice-agreement requirement in Michigan. RNs practice under a physician's orders, standing orders, or delegation, consistent with the Michigan Public Health Code's nursing part — categorically different from the APRN delegation frameworks above.
What a Registered Nurse practice agreement covers in Michigan
Governed by the Michigan 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 the Michigan Public Health Code, MCL 333.17201 et seq. Michigan law does not require a practice 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
- MCL 333.17201statute
Public Health Code definitions of advanced practice registered nurse, registered professional nurse, and the practice of nursing.
- MCL 333.17211astatute
Grant of independent, non-delegated prescribing authority to an APRN for nonscheduled drugs, and the physician-delegation and dual-DEA-number requirement for Schedule 2-5 controlled substances.
- MCL 333.17047statute
Mandatory practice-agreement requirement and content for physician assistants: communication/decision-making process, alternate-physician protocol, signatures, 30-day termination notice, and delineation of duties.
- MCL 333.17048statute
Board of Medicine rulemaking authority to restrict delegation of high-risk services and to restrict which drugs a PA may prescribe; no numerical PA-per-physician ratio appears in the current text.
- MCL 333.16215statute
General statute allowing a physician to delegate acts, tasks, or functions to a qualified individual under the physician's supervision, provided the act does not require the physician's own level of skill or judgment.
- MCL 333.17744gstatute
Independent pharmacist authority, separate from any physician delegation, to prescribe and dispense self-administered hormonal contraceptives and emergency contraception, subject to Board of Pharmacy training and protocol rules.
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 Michigan; they administer medications pursuant to the orders of a licensed prescriber.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure has never been subject to a physician collaboration/supervision agreement in Michigan.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure does not implicate the physician-only PSC/PLLC regime in the first place — non-clinical businesses an RN might own fall outside that framework and carry no ownership restriction confirmed in this pass.
Legal sources for these rules (1)
About Michigan's rules
Michigan has no independent-practice pathway for NPs, CNMs, CNSs, or PAs — specialty certification alone never grants autonomous practice, and delegated authority is renewable/revocable rather than a one-time threshold. CRNAs may deliver anesthesia care independently within the perioperative period but must still maintain a collaborating physician/dentist/podiatrist relationship. A PA-only PLLC has been prohibited since 2010.
Other clinicians in Michigan: see the state overview.