2015 Oregon Revised Statutes
Volume : 15 - Occupations
Chapter 678 - Nurses; Nursing Home Administrators
Section 678.375 - Nurse practitioners; certificates; prohibitions; authority to sign reports of death; drug prescriptions.

(1) The Oregon State Board of Nursing is authorized to issue certificates of special competency to licensed registered nurses to practice as nurse practitioners if they meet the requirements of the board pursuant to ORS 678.380.

(2) No person shall practice as a nurse practitioner or hold oneself out to the public or to an employer, or use the initials, name, title, designation or abbreviation as a nurse practitioner until and unless such person is certified by the board.

(3) A registered nurse, certified as a nurse practitioner, is authorized to complete and sign reports of death. Reports of death signed by a certified nurse practitioner shall be accepted as fulfilling all the requirements of the laws dealing with reports of death. A certified nurse practitioner who prepares a report of death must comply with all provisions of ORS 432.133.

(4) A registered nurse, certified as a nurse practitioner, is authorized to prescribe drugs for the use of and administration to other persons if approval has been given under ORS 678.390. The drugs which the nurse practitioner is authorized to prescribe shall be included within the certified nurse practitioner’s scope of practice as defined by rules of the board.

(5) A licensed pharmacist may fill and a licensed pharmacist or an employee of the licensed pharmacist may dispense medications prescribed by a nurse practitioner in accordance with the terms of the prescription. The filling of such a prescription does not constitute evidence of negligence on the part of the pharmacist if the prescription was dispensed within the reasonable and prudent practice of pharmacy.

(6) As used in this section:

(a) "Drug" means:

(A) Articles recognized as drugs in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, official National Formulary, official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia, other drug compendium or any supplement to any of them;

(B) Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in human beings;

(C) Articles other than food that are intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of human beings; and

(D) Articles intended for use as a component of any articles specified in subparagraph (A), (B) or (C) of this paragraph.

(b) "Prescribe" means to direct, order or designate the preparation, use of or manner of using by spoken or written words or other means.

[1975 c.205 §8; 1979 c.785 §1; 1993 c.469 §9; 1993 c.571 §28; 2001 c.357 §1; 2001 c.623 §5; 2008 c.4 §2; 2013 c.366 §77]