CNS prescriptive Authority in IL

Trauma Columnist · Jan 12, 2012

I'm a CNS in IL. The process is to go thru the IL Dept of Financial and Professional Regulation, get your APN license.

Get a job, obtain your DEA and NPI via your employer.

What exactly are you wanting to know about?

chibikurumi · Jan 12, 2012

Does anyone know how one would get prescriptive authority as a CNS in IL?

I'm currently a nursing student on the Peds CNS track but I don't know if this is the right route to go into. I constantly keep asking myself, "what if I become a CNS and then discover I wanted to do NP instead?" The I learned that CNS can get prescriptive authority and work in some NP roles in IL, but I don't know how one would do this. I've also heard from others that a CNS can sit on the board exam to get his/her NP. All they need is a recent pharmacotherapeutics course, although I don't know how one would do this either.

Just wondering if anyone had some insight on this.

Trauma Columnist · Jan 12, 2012

In IL, CNS =NP as far as scope of practice.

However, you can not sit for the NP boards if CNS is your education.

I work in a large practice with now 17 MDs, 5 mid-levels (PAs, NPs and me, a CNS) and the midlevels do the same job. We all prescribe, see, treat and diagnose patients.