Nurse practitioners (NPs) are essential to the delivery of health care in the United States. In some states, NPs can practice with to the full extent of their license; delivering services they have trained to provide without mandatory involvement from a physician. In other states, NPs need a practice agreement with a collaborating physician to provide some or all their patient care. Whether or not an NP has the authority to write prescriptions is a good indicator of their overall legal scope of practice in a given state.

This resource presents information about the prescribing authority for NPs in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Users can also design a search to identify national trends or learn more about practice agreement requirements in different states.