Practice Agreement · RN
Registered Nurse Practice Agreement in New Mexico
New Mexico 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 New Mexico; RN practice is defined and governed by the Nursing Practice Act (Ch. 61, Art. 3, NMSA) without a physician-oversight gate.
What a Registered Nurse practice agreement covers in New Mexico
Governed by the New Mexico 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 New Mexico Nursing Practice Act, NMSA Chapter 61, Article 3. New Mexico law does not require a supervision or 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
- 16.19.4 NMACregulation
New Mexico Board of Pharmacy rule governing pharmacist clinician certification, protocol requirements, and prescriptive authority.
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 New Mexico; they administer medications only under a valid order from an authorized prescriber.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — general RN licensure is never subject to physician supervision or a collaborative agreement, unlike the APRN/PA categories above.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — General RN licensure does not require formation of a same-profession professional corporation — an RN may own non-clinical businesses (staffing, home health, the MSO/business side of a med-spa) without the ownership restriction applicable to entities delivering physician/APRN-level clinical services.
For medical-aesthetics businesses performing procedures reserved to physicians/APRNs, RN ownership of the business entity does not itself confer authority to perform those procedures.
Legal sources for these rules (1)
About New Mexico's rules
New Mexico has no corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine (1987 A.G. opinion) — non-physician entities may employ physicians if clinical judgment isn't controlled — but professional corporations must still be single-profession owned (a PA/NP/etc. entity can't mix ownership with physicians). NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS practice independently with full prescriptive authority (Schedules II–V); PA remains the outlier requiring ongoing physician involvement.
Other clinicians in New Mexico: see the state overview.