APN Practice and Prescriptive Authority

     Re: Controlled Substances, Schedule II (two)

Q:  May physicians pre-sign prescriptions for Schedule II Controlled Substances so NPs can give them to patients when the physician is not in the office?

A:  No, a physician is never allowed to pre-sign a prescription for Controlled Substances. In fact, a physician was recently indicted for pre-signing these prescriptions, and that physician is likely to be sent to prison for this felony offense.  

Likewise, a NP using pre-signed prescriptions for Schedule II drugs could also be found guilty of committing a crime and could consequently lose his/her nursing license. If physicians want NPs to be able to supply patients with prescriptions for Schedule II drugs in the physician’s absence, then those physicians should contact the board members of their medical organizations and ask them to support changing the law to allow APNs to prescribe Schedule II drugs.
 

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