Practice Agreement · RN
Registered Nurse Practice Agreement in West Virginia
West Virginia 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 West Virginia; general RN practice is defined without a physician-oversight condition, unlike the APRN prescribing requirement above.
What a Registered Nurse practice agreement covers in West Virginia
Governed by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses. 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 agreement required of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses seeking prescriptive authority, West Virginia 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
- W. Va. Code §§ 30-5-18, 30-5-19; W. Va. Code St. R. tit. 11, ser. 8 (Boards of Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, and Pharmacy Joint Rule for Collaborative Pharmacy Practice)board guidance
West Virginia Board of Pharmacy's own description of the collaborative pharmacy practice notification process, eligibility, and scope limits.
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 West Virginia; they administer medications only as ordered by 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 an Authorized Medical Corporation under § 30-3-15 — non-clinical businesses an RN might own (staffing agency, home health agency) fall under general corporation/LLC law and carry no ownership restriction.
For medical-aesthetics (med-spa) businesses performing delegated medical procedures, RN ownership of the business entity doesn't remove the need for physician delegation/oversight of the procedures themselves — not independently confirmed against a West Virginia-specific med-spa rule in this research pass.
Legal sources for these rules (1)
About West Virginia's rules
code.wvlegislature.gov would not serve statute text during this research pass (anomalous redirect, not followed) — sourcing below leans on WV Board of Nursing/Medicine/Pharmacy materials and secondary sources; confidence is lower than for states with direct statute access. SB 956 (2026), which would let PAs own practices and end mandatory collaboration, had NOT confirmed final passage/signature as of this research pass — treat PA entries below as the current, not the pending, law.
Other clinicians in West Virginia: see the state overview.