While states like California continue to debate the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, many others have opted to allow NPs to practice without physician supervision.
Based on a fact sheet from the Healthforce Center at University of California San Francisco and the California Health Care Foundation, 28 states currently allow NPs full practice authority to treat and prescribe without formal oversight.
In addition to the District of Columbia, the following states grant full practice authority as soon as NPs earn their licenses:
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Montana
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- North Dakota
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Utah
- Washington
- Wyoming
The following states allow NPs to earn full practice authority after practicing with physician oversight for a set number of hours.
- Colorado — 1,000 hours for prescriptive authority
- Connecticut — 3 years and 2,000 hours
- Delaware — 2 years and 4,000 hours
- Illinois — 4,000 hours
- Kentucky — 4 years
- Maine — 2 years
- Maryland — 1.5 years
- Minnesota — 2,080 hours
- Nebraska — 2,000 hours
- Nevada — 2 years or 2,000 hours
- South Dakota — 1,040 hours
- Vermont — 2 years and 2,400 hours
- Virginia — 5 years and 9,000 hours
- West Virginia — 3 years
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