Or. Rev. Stat. » Oregon Revised Statutes
Oregon Revised Statutes

Or. Rev. Stat. § 678.375 (2026)

Nurse practitioners; licenses; prohibitions; authority to sign reports of death; authority to prescribe

✓ current as of May 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section ORSoregonlegislature.gov JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

      678.375 Nurse practitioners; licenses; prohibitions; authority to sign reports of death; authority to prescribe. (1) The Oregon State Board of Nursing is authorized to issue licenses to licensed registered nurses to practice as nurse practitioners if they meet the requirements of the board pursuant to ORS 678.380.

      (2) A person may not 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 the person is licensed by the board.

      (3) A registered nurse licensed as a nurse practitioner is authorized to complete and sign reports of death. Reports of death signed by a nurse practitioner fulfill the requirements of the laws dealing with reports of death. A nurse practitioner who completes a report of death shall comply with ORS 432.133.

      (4) A registered nurse licensed 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 that the nurse practitioner is authorized to prescribe must be included within the 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 a prescription described in this subsection 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; 2019 c.358 §37; 2021 c.189 §5]

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1988–2021 · leading case: Cook v. Workers' Comp. Dep't, 758 P.2d 854 (Or. 1988).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Cook v. Workers' Comp. Dep't, 758 P.2d 854 (Or. 1988). · cites it 6× “The 1975 nurse practitioner statutes, ORS 678.375 to 678.410, suggest that the "expanded specialty role" consists primarily of the nurse practitioner's eligibility to apply for drug prescribing authority.”
Lizama v. Allstate Fire & Cas. Ins. Co., 425 P.3d 464 (Or. Ct. App. 2018). “525 or nurse practitioner licensed under ORS 678.375 to 678.390 who treats the injured person in the hospital or who provides medical services shall have a lien upon any sum awarded the injured person or the personal representative of the person by judgment or award or obtained…”
Olguin v. Dept. of Rev. (Or. T.C. 2021). “ORS 678.375(3)-(4); OAR 851-050-0005(5). Additionally, NPs are authorized to independently provide healthcare in a variety of specialty areas including, midwifery, gerontology, and pediatrics, among others.”
— Or. Rev. Stat. § 678.375(3) — 1 case
Olguin v. Dept. of Rev. (Or. T.C. 2021). “ORS 678.375(3)-(4); OAR 851-050-0005(5). Additionally, NPs are authorized to independently provide healthcare in a variety of specialty areas including, midwifery, gerontology, and pediatrics, among others.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.