Kansas answers the RN sedation question in a Kansas State Board of Nursing position statement — one page of text, not a statute and not a regulation. Its opening sentence: it is within the scope of practice of a Kansas licensed registered professional nurse “to administer pharmacologic agents via the intravenous route to produce moderate sedation/analgesia” (p. 1), also referred to as IV “conscious sedation”. It then lists six things an RN must be ready to prove if practice is questioned.
Kansas at a glance
| Board | Kansas State Board of Nursing — the statement’s own letterhead (p. 1). |
| Document | Position Statement, Administration of IV Conscious Sedation (Moderate Sedation/Analgesia) By the Registered Professional Nurse — a two-page PDF filed as Approved-IV-Conc-Sed-Draft-3-2014.pdf. All of its text is on page 1; page 2 is blank. |
| Rule it applies | Not a rule, and it cites no regulation. Its reference list gives three authorities: “Kansas Statute Annotated 65-1113.”, “Kansas Statute Annotated 65-1151 et.seq.” and “Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2000-26.” (p. 1). |
| Status | A position statement, headed “Position Statement” (p. 1), with no penalty clause and no sentence about its own legal effect. One “must” — the RN “must be ready to prove” (p. 1) six things — and one “shall”, which runs in the nurse’s favor. |
| Dates | “Approved: 3/25/2014” (p. 1) is the only date on it — its Practice/IV Therapy Advisory Committee meeting. No revision, review or effective date appears on the document. |
| Who it covers | “a Kansas licensed registered professional nurse (RN)” (p. 1) administering IV pharmacologic agents to produce moderate sedation/analgesia (p. 1). |
| Who it does not cover | Written for the registered professional nurse. The licensed practical nurse and the nursing student go unmentioned. The registered nurse anesthetist is named twice, but never as a role the statement covers — the statute “that defines the practice of a registered nurse anesthetist” (p. 1) is set aside, and the Attorney General quotation speaks of delegation “to a person other than a registered nurse anesthetist” (p. 1). Neither mention grants or restricts anything for that role. |
| Settings the document names | Not stated. No setting type appears anywhere in it — no hospital, ambulatory surgical center, office, clinic or unit. Its only pointer to a place is the facility whose rules it twice invokes (p. 1). |
| Re-verification interval | Not stated. No interval, no expiry, no re-demonstration schedule. Its documentation items are what an RN must be ready to prove “If practice is questioned” (p. 1) — a burden of proof, not a renewal cycle. |
| Where the record lives | Not assigned. The burden sits on the nurse — the RN must be ready to prove documentation of education and of skill/competence (p. 1) — but the statement does not say who keeps the file. |
| CE hours | Not stated. No contact-hour count and no continuing-education requirement. What it asks for is “education specific to the procedure and the pharmacologic agents utilized” (p. 1), with no hours attached. |
What the Kansas State Board of Nursing says
The answer is yes, and the statement shows its working. “KSA 65-1113(d) (1) authorizes a RN to provide medical treatment and to execute a medical regimen as prescribed by someone licensed to practice medicine and surgery.” (p. 1) “Receiving an order and administering an IV med is the execution of a medical regimen and is allowed when following a lawful physician’s order.” (p. 1) It clears the nurse-anesthetist statute out of the way: “The action is not prohibited by KSA 65-1151 and sequence that defines the practice of a registered nurse anesthetist.” (p. 1)
Then the Attorney General. A physician “may delegate to a person other than a registered nurse anesthetist the task of application of a drug used as an anesthetic” (p. 1) if, in the physician’s judgment, “that person is competent and qualified by training, experience or licensure to perform the task and the physician adequately supervises performance of the task.” (p. 1) That power rests with the physician and is conditional; it is not a Board authorization.
The list opens with the two documented-competency items:
“If practice is questioned the RN must be ready to prove the following: 1. Documentation of education specific to the procedure and the pharmacologic agents utilized. 2. Documentation of skill/competence in the procedure and with the medications involved.”
Kansas State Board of Nursing, position statement approved 3/25/2014 (p. 1)
The other four: “Confirmation of the physician’s order to execute the medical regimen.” (p. 1); “That the procedure was not prohibited by a facility policy and procedure or by some other entity.” (p. 1); “That the standard of care is and was being met. Industry standards are considered.” (p. 1); and “That the nurse has complied with the appropriate facility policies and procedures covering this process.” (p. 1)
Three lines to keep straight
The nurse’s own judgment. “The RN has an independent obligation under her/his license to monitor patient safety and to question or decline orders or procedures that may put the patient at risk.” (p. 1) The Board’s one “shall” attaches to declining: “A refusal to assist shall not be actionable as a licensing issue if the nurse in the determination of the Board has followed a process that assures the patient’s safety and protection.” (p. 1) The protection is conditional on that determination.
Moderate sedation only, and no drug list. Deep sedation and general anesthesia are not mentioned anywhere in the statement, so nothing in it speaks to them. It names no drug and no drug class either; the nearest it comes is the Attorney General’s “a drug used as an anesthetic” (p. 1) — about who may be delegated the task, not about which agents an RN may give.
Where the LPN line sits. Not here: the position statement says nothing about the licensed practical nurse. The Board’s separate IV-therapy regulation, K.A.R. 60-16-102, is where an LPN intravenous question is answered; it restricts the LPN and forms no part of the statement quoted here.
What a Kansas facility should be able to show
The six-item list is a burden of proof, not a curriculum, and it names no course. Read as records, it comes to three things:
- The facility’s own sedation policies, procedures and order trail — items 3, 4 and 6 above. Item 5 measures the whole file against the standard of care and industry standards (p. 1), which the Board does not define here.
- Per-RN documentation of education — item 1: “Documentation of education specific to the procedure and the pharmacologic agents utilized.” (p. 1) Procedure-specific and agent-specific, in the Board’s own framing.
- Per-RN documentation of skill or competence — item 2: “Documentation of skill/competence in the procedure and with the medications involved.” (p. 1) On an interval your own policy names; the statement 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 Kansas facilities ask
The file name says Draft — is this the Board’s adopted position?
Yes, on the record we can see: the Board’s own minutes of March 26, 2014 record Motion #37, approving the revised position statement as written, the day after its Practice/IV Therapy Advisory Committee approved it. One caution: the Board’s former guidelines-and-position-statements index page now returns a 404 and the statement is not linked from the site’s navigation; the PDF is still served from the Board’s own domain, but confirm the Board’s current position with the Board before you rely on it.
Does the Kansas position statement set a renewal interval for sedation competency?
No — not in this document. It sets none: no months, no years, no expiry, no re-demonstration schedule. What it asks is that the RN be ready to prove documentation of education and of skill/competence “If practice is questioned” (p. 1).
Does Kansas require the CSRN™ course specifically?
No. The statement names no course, no provider and no curriculum, and no state mandates this specific one. What it asks for is documentation — of education specific to the procedure and the agents used, and of skill or competence with them (p. 1). CSRN™ is designed to serve as that evidence.
Compliance note (last reviewed September 2026): This page is educational information about the Kansas State Board of Nursing position statement on IV conscious sedation, not legal advice or a compliance determination. Every quotation was checked word-for-word against the Board’s own PDF on 2026-09-02; Board typography is quoted as printed, including “and sequence” (p. 1) for et seq. It is a position statement, not a statute or a regulation, and it carries no revision or review date; confirm the Board’s current position and your own facility policy before relying on this summary. No state mandates this specific course.