The Hawaii Board of Nursing publishes no sedation policy, standard or position statement — its home page, its Licensing Laws and Rules page, its Application Forms page and the department’s proposed-rulemaking page carried none when they were read on 2026-09-02. Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 16-89 uses the word “sedation” once — inside the certified registered nurse anesthetist’s scope of practice (p. 41) — and its opening section says the scopes of nursing practice “are to serve as general guidelines and not intended to address the appropriateness of or to grant permission to implement specific procedures in particular work settings” (p. 8). That silence is the finding here, and it is not the same as saying nothing is required: chapter 16-89 makes the facility’s own policy and the nurse’s own education and training disciplinary matters.
Hawaii at a glance
| Board | Hawaii State Board of Nursing, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs |
| Document | The Board publishes no sedation policy, standard or position statement. Fallback: Amendment and Compilation of Chapter 16-89, Hawaii Administrative Rules (Nurses), summary page dated September 6, 2018 — a 60-page PDF whose rule text ends on p. 58. Page numbers here refer to that PDF, not to the 89-N folios printed inside it. |
| Rule it is | HAR §§16-89-1 to 16-89-132; used here, §§16-89-1, 16-89-2, 16-89-59, 16-89-60, 16-89-81, 16-89-126 and 16-89-128. Authority: HRS §457-5 (§§16-89-126 and 16-89-128 cite HRS §§26-9(k), 436B-4 and 436B-7). |
| Status | Administrative rule, not advisory. The amendments “shall take effect ten days after filing with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor” (p. 58). |
| Dates | Adopted 09/06/2018 after a public hearing the same day (p. 58); history note “am and comp 10/27/18” (p. 8). A proposed amendment is pending (hearing April 4, 2024; stated purpose, temporary nurse permits) whose draft leaves the chapter’s one sedation clause unchanged. |
| Who it covers | Registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and advanced practice registered nurses — §§16-89-126 and 16-89-128 name all three (p. 54). |
| Who it does not cover | Not stated for sedation. The chapter writes no sedation exemption and no sedation prohibition for any licence. Its single sedation reference sits in the CRNA scope of practice (p. 41) and is neither a permission nor a bar for anyone else. |
| Settings the document names | None for sedation. Care settings appear in the chapter only outside any sedation context — among them “facilities licensed as hospitals, long term care facilities or hospice” (p. 41). |
| Re-verification interval | Not stated. Chapter 16-89 sets no interval for sedation competency, and no interval for procedural competency of any kind. |
| Where the record lives | Not stated — the chapter names no sedation record. What it attaches instead is a disciplinary standard: performing a nursing technique or procedure without proper education and training is unprofessional conduct (§16-89-60(6)(E), p. 35), answered out of the facility’s own policy and personnel file. |
| CE hours | Not stated — no contact-hour requirement for sedation. The chapter defines “Continuing education” for its own purposes as “a refresher course in subchapter 18 only” (p. 9); Hawaii’s general continuing-competency requirement for renewal is administered outside this chapter. |
What chapter 16-89 says
Hawaii does not write its own scope. Under §16-89-126, “The board adopted the NCSBN Model Nursing Practice Act and Model Nursing Administrative Rules relating to the scope of nursing practice for licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, and advanced practice registered nurses” (p. 54), and §16-89-128 does the same for standards of care, adding that “Any modifications by the NCSBN to the standards of care shall apply” (p. 54). Only one of the two was examined for this page: the Board publishes the 2012 Model Nursing Practice Act alongside the chapter, and the word sedation does not appear in it (checked 2026-09-02); the Model Nursing Administrative Rules is a separate NCSBN publication and was not read here. So the silence this page vouches for is the chapter’s own and the model act’s; the Model Nursing Administrative Rules is the one piece of Hawaii’s adopted scope a facility should check for itself.
Two of the types of unprofessional conduct §16-89-60 lists are what a sedation programme lives or dies on — “Failing to take appropriate action or to follow policies and procedures in the practice setting designed to safeguard the patient” (p. 35), and:
“Performing nursing techniques or procedures without proper education and training”
Hawaii Administrative Rules §16-89-60(6)(E) (p. 35)
The chapter’s one use of “sedation” sits in the certified registered nurse anesthetist’s list at §16-89-81(c)(2)(C), which gives authority to “Select and initiate the planned anesthesia technique which may include: general, regional, and local anesthesia and sedation” (p. 41) — what a CRNA may select, not what a registered nurse may or may not do. The chapter’s life-support language sits in that same CRNA list (pp. 41–42); it attaches no life-support requirement to any other licence.
What a Hawaii facility should be able to show
With no published Board sedation standard, a Hawaii nurse’s sedation practice is measured against the facility’s own policy and whatever its licensing regulator requires — and §16-89-60 turns two of those documents into the nurse’s own licence risk:
- A written sedation policy for the practice setting. Chapter 16-89 obliges no one to have one; it judges the nurse against the policies the setting already has. The chapter specifies nothing such a policy must contain.
- Per-nurse evidence of education and training before a nurse administers or monitors moderate sedation. §16-89-60(6)(E) makes performing a nursing technique or procedure without proper education and training a type of unprofessional conduct (p. 35); it calls for no record of that training, and the record is how a facility shows it was there.
- Per-nurse evidence that the competency is current, on an interval your own policy names; chapter 16-89 sets none.
The CSRN™ course — 10 CE contact hours developed and delivered by Capt. M. Ron Eslinger, CRNA, with module exams, case studies and a certificate ID your credentialing office can verify — is built to be records 2 and 3 on that list. Facility seats and roster tracking →
Questions Hawaii facilities ask
Does the Hawaii Board of Nursing have a moderate sedation position statement?
Not one anybody can read. Paraphrased from the minutes of September 5, 2019: the Board voted unanimously to adopt a position statement titled Administration and Management of Intravenous (IV) Moderate Sedation and directed the executive officer to post it on its web page. It has not appeared on the four pages named above, read on 2026-09-02. A statement described in minutes is evidence of what the Board voted, not a published standard — there is no text to comply with and none to cite, and any third-party reproduction of a Hawaii moderate sedation position statement is unsourced.
Does chapter 16-89 say whether a Hawaii RN may administer moderate sedation?
No. The chapter’s own text does not address it, and the one instrument it incorporates that was not read for this page, the NCSBN Model Nursing Administrative Rules, is where any adopted answer would have to be looked for. Asked a version of this question in 2018, the Board’s recorded answer was that the definition of the practice of nursing is not specific to any procedure (Board of Nursing minutes, September 6, 2018). The decision therefore sits with the facility and its licensing regulator, not with a Board rule.
Does Hawaii require the CSRN™ course specifically?
No. Chapter 16-89 requires no particular course for sedation — no sedation training, no contact-hour count and no certificate. What it does say is that “Performing nursing techniques or procedures without proper education and training” is unprofessional conduct (p. 35), and no state mandates this specific course. CSRN™ is designed to be that evidence: a named credential, assessed competency and an employer-verifiable certificate ID.
Compliance note (last reviewed September 2026): This page is educational information about Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 16-89, Nurses, not legal advice or a compliance determination. Every quotation was checked word-for-word against that PDF on 2026-09-02; page numbers refer to it. Board-minutes passages are paraphrased from the Board of Nursing’s own minutes of September 6, 2018 and September 5, 2019; minutes are authoritative as to what the Board said and voted, and are not rules. The finding that the Board has posted no sedation policy, standard or position statement was established on 2026-09-02 by reading the four Board and department pages named at the top of this page, and by checking the Board’s own copy of the 2012 NCSBN Model Nursing Practice Act; the other instrument §§16-89-126 and 16-89-128 incorporate, the NCSBN Model Nursing Administrative Rules, was not examined. Hawaii facility licensure, administered by the Department of Health, was not examined either. This course covers moderate sedation only. Confirm the current compilation and your own facility policy before relying on this summary. No state mandates this specific course.