Can a nurse practitioner treat without a supervising physician in Colorado?
Who treats · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
The cited rules do not settle this — prescribing requires separate board-granted APRN authority, limited to the APRN's role and population focus and provisional until 750 mentorship hours; nothing cited sets a general supervision rule for treatment itself.
Prescriptive authority is not part of APRN registration; the board grants it separately to an APRN on the advanced practice registry whose license is in good standing without disciplinary sanctions and who has met the requirements of § 12-255-112. Authority extends to prescribing “to provide treatment to clients within the role and population focus of the advanced practice registered nurse” — so a pediatric focus is not a warrant to prescribe cosmetically to adults.
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 12-255-112(1)(a), (3)(a) · verified Sep 2, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
Related Colorado rules
An APRN applying for prescriptive authority must provide the board with an appropriate graduate degree, education in controlled substances and prescription drugs, national certification, professional liability insurance, inclusion on the advanced practice registry, and “a signed attestation stating that the advanced practice registered nurse has completed at least three years of combined clinical work experience as a professional nurse or as an advanced practice registered nurse.”
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 12-255-112(4)(a) · verified Sep 2, 2026
⚠️ what is first granted is provisional. To keep provisional authority and reach full authority the APRN “must obtain seven hundred fifty hours of documented experience in a mutually structured prescribing mentorship” with a physician or a fully authorized APRN or certified midwife. The mentor “must be practicing in Colorado” and have education, training, experience and an active practice corresponding to the mentee’s role and population focus.
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 12-255-112(4)(b)(I)(A) · verified Sep 2, 2026
How other states answer this
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Related Colorado questions
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