Guide

The not-a-physician notice and signage an NP practice may owe

Summary

Some states require a nurse practitioner to tell patients plainly that an NP is not a physician, and some do not; there is no national rule, and inside a state the duty usually rides on which practice pathway you hold. California writes both a spoken disclosure to every new patient and a posted notice into its two independent pathways. Florida asks autonomous registrants for a written document. Arizona regulates the advertisement rather than the wall.

By Gale Editorial · Updated 2026-09-01. Every figure cited to a dated source. How we write.

Does your state require a not-a-physician notice?

Some states do, most of the rules that exist are narrower than the question sounds, and there is no federal or national requirement anywhere in this territory. The duty, where it exists, is written into a state's own practice act or its board rules, and inside a state it usually attaches to one pathway, so it does not reach every nurse practitioner. Check the section that granted your authority before you order a sign.

Which pathway you hold is what decides it. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners calls a state full practice when its laws let all NPs evaluate, diagnose, order and interpret tests, and initiate and manage treatments under the exclusive licensure authority of the state board of nursing; reduced-practice states run a career-long regulated collaborative agreement, and restricted-practice states run career-long supervision 1. A disclosure duty tends to ride on that pathway and to leave the license itself alone, so two nurse practitioners in one state can owe different things on the same morning.

Three states with published, checkable rules show three different shapes of duty. None of the three is the national rule.

StateWhat is requiredWho owes it
CaliforniaTell every new patient that a nurse practitioner is not a physician and surgeon, and post a public notice naming the Board of Registered Nursing 2NPs practicing under the 103 or 104 pathways and not working under standardized procedures 23
FloridaWritten information about qualifications and the nature of autonomous practice, before or during the first encounter 4APRNs registered for autonomous practice 4
ArizonaAn advertisement carrying your name identifies your title and the type of license you hold 5Health professionals generally, not NPs specifically 5

None of the three says anything about putting a collaborating physician's name on a door sign, a name tag or a consent form.

California puts the sentence in the statute

California writes the disclosure as speech, not decoration. A nurse practitioner practicing under Business and Professions Code section 2837.104 and not working under standardized procedures shall inform all new patients, in a language understandable to the patient, that a nurse practitioner is not a physician and surgeon 2. The same duty sits at the same subdivision of section 2837.103, the group-setting pathway, so it is not a penalty attached to independent practice 3.

The trigger phrase is the one that is easy to read past: not working under standardized procedures. A California NP still practicing under standardized procedures is not the person these subdivisions address 3. Other states call that instrument a collaborative agreement or protocol, and the required clauses in a collaborative agreement are their own question 1.

But the statute also stops the board short of a second script. A 104 NP not working under standardized procedures shall not be required by the board to tell a patient that the patient has a right to see a physician and surgeon 2. The disclosure the law wants is the one about who you are.

The California sign, down to the type size

The sign is real and the board prints its dimensions. Section 2837.104 requires a notice posted in a conspicuous location accessible to public view stating that the nurse practitioner is regulated by the Board of Registered Nursing, carrying the board's telephone number and the website where a license can be checked and a complaint made 2. The board's own page sets the floor at 48-point Arial font, posted on the premises where the NP provides the services 6.

The board also prints the wording it expects: the word NOTICE, then that nurse practitioners are licensed and regulated by the Board of Registered Nursing, then the board's telephone number and its web address 6.

Who owes it is narrower than a sign on a wall suggests. The board states that the consumer-notification requirements are mandatory for 103 NPs and 104 NPs and optional for all other NPs, with an exception for work in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities 6. Optional means optional: a California NP outside those two pathways can post the same notice by choice.

The type size and the wording come from a board information page rather than the code, and such a page can be revised with no amendment to the statute, so re-read it the day you send the file to the printer 6.

The name badge is a different rule from the notice

The badge comes from a separate statute that reaches further than the NP sections do. Business and Professions Code section 680 requires a health care practitioner to disclose, while working, name and license status as granted by the state, on a name tag in at least 18-point type 7. It covers practitioners licensed under the Healing Arts division generally, which is why it gets missed by anyone reading only the AB 890 material.

There is an opt-out, and it is the practical one for a solo office. A practitioner working in a practice or office whose license is prominently displayed may choose not to wear the tag 7. The same section carries an exception for psychiatric and certain unlicensed settings, made by the employing entity, and it restricts who may use the title nurse 7.

So a solo office has two workable positions: hang the license where patients see it, or wear a tag that meets the type floor.

Florida asks for a document instead of a sign

Florida moves the same concern onto paper. An APRN registered for autonomous practice must provide information in writing to a new patient about his or her qualifications and the nature of autonomous practice, before or during the initial patient encounter 4. The statute imposes no posting duty on the premises, prints no scripted sentence about physicians, and reaches registrants rather than every APRN licensed in the state 4.

It names the two subjects and stops. No model form appears in the statute and no list of required contents, which leaves the drafting to you and makes the timing the part worth engineering: the information is owed before or during the initial encounter 4. Put it in the packet the patient signs at the first visit and keep a dated copy.

Registration is what pulls a Florida APRN into that subsection at all 4. An APRN who has not registered is answering a different question, under the part of the practice act that governs the arrangement in force.

Arizona regulates the advertisement

Arizona reaches the same disclosure from the marketing side. An advertisement for health care services that includes a health professional's name shall identify the title and type of license the health professional holds, and failing to do so is an act of unprofessional conduct 5. The statute covers health professionals generally, says nothing about what hangs in a waiting room, and never uses the phrase not a physician 5.

The definition of advertisement is what makes this operational. It includes billboards, brochures, pamphlets, radio and television scripts, electronic media, printed telephone directories, telephone and direct mail solicitations 5. A practice website, a printed brochure and a directory entry all sit inside that list, so the exposure is spread across surfaces a solo practice built months apart and has not read since.

But nothing in it tells you to put anything on a wall.

Find your own state's rule, then write it into intake

Read the section of your own practice act that granted your authority, because the disclosure duty is usually written into the same section. California's sits in the subdivisions that follow the 103 and 104 grants 23. Florida's sits inside the autonomous-practice section 4. Arizona's sits in a general health-professional chapter rather than the nurse practice act 5, which is why a board-page search alone can come back empty and still be wrong.

  • Search your state's code for the section that created your independent, autonomous or collaborative pathway, then read every subdivision after the grant of authority.
  • Read your board's practice or FAQ page next, and save a dated copy of what it said.
  • Decide where the sentence lives in your intake: the consent packet, the first-visit script, or both, with the packet retained.
  • Audit everything already published under your name: the website footer, the brochure, the directory entries, the profile a credentialing application created for you.
  • Where the wording is genuinely ambiguous for your setting, that is the question to take to a health care attorney licensed in your state.

The same lookup answers the questions sitting next to this one: physician co-signature on NP notes, finding a collaborating physician independently, buprenorphine prescribing with required physician involvement. It does not answer how a claim identifies you. Modifier SA and the rest of the billing questions live in your payer's manual and your contract, and your practice act does not decide them.

Common questions

No. The rules that exist are state rules, and they sit in different places: a practice act, a board's own information page, or a general health-professional statute that covers advertising. They also differ in kind. California writes a spoken disclosure and a posted notice, Florida asks autonomous registrants for a written document, and Arizona regulates what an advertisement carrying your name has to say.

The board states the consumer-notification requirements are mandatory for 103 NPs and 104 NPs and optional for all other NPs, with an exception for work in Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities. The statutory duty attaches where the NP is not working under standardized procedures. The board's page sets the notice at 48-point Arial font and prints the four lines it expects to see.

No. They come from different statutes and do different work. Section 680 covers name and license status on a tag in at least 18-point type, for health care practitioners generally, with an opt-out where the license is prominently displayed in the practice or office. The AB 890 notice is about who regulates the nurse practitioner and how a patient reaches that board.

The statute names the subjects and stops there: written information about the APRN's qualifications and the nature of autonomous practice, given to a new patient before or during the initial encounter. It prints no model form and no required sentence, and it applies to APRNs registered for autonomous practice rather than to every APRN in the state. Keep a dated copy of what you hand over.

None of the three states sourced here treats a website as premises signage. Arizona reaches it from the other direction: an advertisement carrying a health professional's name must state the title and type of license, and the statutory definition of advertisement includes electronic media, brochures and printed directories. California's posting rule speaks about the premises where the services are provided.

In California, no. The statute says a nurse practitioner practicing under section 2837.104 and not working under standardized procedures shall not be required by the board to tell a patient that the patient has a right to see a physician and surgeon. That provision is California's alone. Another state's board rules can differ, so read the section that granted your own pathway.

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References

  1. 1.American Association of Nurse Practitioners (2026). State Practice Environment. American Association of Nurse Practitioners. link ✓AANP's three practice-environment categories as the frame for why a disclosure duty rides on the pathway an NP practices under, its full-practice definition, and that reduced-practice states require a career-long regulated collaborative agreement while restricted-practice states require career-long supervision.
  2. 2.California State Legislature (2024). Business and Professions Code § 2837.104 — Nurse practitioners: practice outside specified settings (amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 481 (SB 1451), effective January 1, 2025). California Legislative Information (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). link ✓The 104-pathway duties: informing all new patients in a language understandable to the patient that a nurse practitioner is not a physician and surgeon, the notice posted in a conspicuous location accessible to public view naming the Board of Registered Nursing with its telephone number and website, and the bar on the board requiring a right-to-see-a-physician statement.
  3. 3.California State Legislature (2024). Business and Professions Code § 2837.103 — Nurse practitioners: practice without standardized procedures (amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 481 (SB 1451), effective January 1, 2025). California Legislative Information (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov). link ✓That the identical inform-new-patients duty sits in the 103 group-setting pathway at the same subdivision, and that these duties attach only where the nurse practitioner is not working under standardized procedures.
  4. 4.Florida Legislature (2026). 464.0123 Autonomous practice by an advanced practice registered nurse. The 2026 Florida Statutes, Title XXXII ch. 464 (leg.state.fl.us). linkFlorida's disclosure subsection: written information to a new patient about qualifications and the nature of autonomous practice before or during the initial patient encounter, owed by APRNs registered for autonomous practice rather than by every Florida APRN, with no signage duty and no scripted wording in the statute.
  5. 5.Arizona State Legislature (2026). 32-3213. Health professionals; disclosure; unprofessional conduct; definition. Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 32 (Professions and Occupations), Chapter 32 (Regulation of Health Professionals). link ✓Arizona's advertising disclosure: an advertisement including a health professional's name must identify the title and type of license, failure is unprofessional conduct, and the statute's broad definition of advertisement covering billboards, brochures, electronic media, printed directories and direct mail.
  6. 6.California Board of Registered Nursing (2026). Assembly Bill 890 — Nurse Practitioners: Scope of Practice: Practice Without Standardized Procedures (program page and frequently asked questions). California Board of Registered Nursing (rn.ca.gov). link ✓The board's rendering of the consumer-notification requirements: at least 48-point Arial font in a conspicuous location on the premises, the four-line notice wording the board prints, the statement that the requirements are mandatory for 103 and 104 NPs and optional for all other NPs, and the corrections-facility exception.
  7. 7.California State Legislature (2013). Business and Professions Code Section 680. California Legislative Information (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov) — Business and Professions Code, Division 2, Chapter 1, Article 7.5 (Health Care Practitioners). link ✓California's name-tag rule for health care practitioners: name and license status in at least 18-point type while working, the opt-out where the license is prominently displayed in the practice or office, the psychiatric and unlicensed-setting exception made by the employing entity, and the restriction on use of the title nurse.

https://www.gale.care/for-providers/pq-np-not-a-physician-notice-signage · 7 sources. Competitor details are cited to dated public sources and maintained as they change; figures are estimates, not commitments. Synthetic demonstration.

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