In New York the honest answer is an absence: the statute governing the registered professional nurse — Education Law, Title VIII, Article 139, §§ 6900–6912 — never reaches sedation at all, and what it sets instead is the general scope test quoted below. This page covers the nursing lane only: the statute, the Commissioner’s regulations, and what the Board for Nursing publishes. Article 139 itself points outward — to hospitals, home care services agencies and hospice programs under the public health law (§§ 6902, 6908, 6909) — and what that law requires of a facility is not summarised here.
New York at a glance
| Board | New York State Board for Nursing, in the State Education Department’s Office of the Professions (§ 6904). |
| Document | New York Education Law, Title VIII, Article 139 — Nursing, §§ 6900–6912, published by the Office of the Professions. An HTML page, cited here by section. Two other documents are named below, each with the authority it belongs to: 8 NYCRR Part 64 and the State Board for Podiatry’s guideline. |
| Rule it is, and applies | It is the statute. § 6900 applies it to nursing and makes article 130’s general provisions apply here too. RN practice is executing medical regimens “in accordance with the commissioner’s regulations” (§ 6902) — 8 NYCRR Part 64, §§ 64.1–64.8, none about sedation. |
| Status | Statute, with the force of law — the operative verb is “shall”. Nothing in it is advisory; nothing in it reaches sedation. Part 64 as posted carries the Department’s own disclaimer (paraphrased): the posted regulations are unofficial; Title 8 NYCRR (Department of State) is the official text. |
| Dates | None printed — no adoption, revision, effective or review date. Its self-attached dates are subdivision notes: “NB Effective Until July 1, 2030” and “NB Effective July 1, 2030” (§ 6902), “NB Repealed March 31, 2029” (§§ 6906, 6908, 6909) and “NB Repealed July 1, 2030” (§ 6909). |
| Who it covers | Everyone licensed or authorized under the article (§ 6903). § 6902 defines RN practice as “diagnosing and treating human responses to actual or potential health problems” plus executing prescribed medical regimens, and defines LPN practice separately. Neither definition mentions sedation. |
| Who it does not cover | Not addressed, for sedation purposes: Article 139 draws no RN/LPN sedation line, no drug line, no depth-of-sedation line. It exempts the persons listed in § 6908 and creates no nurse-anesthetist credential — nurse practitioner (§ 6910) and clinical nurse specialist (§ 6911) only. There is no § 6913; the article ends at § 6912. |
| Settings the document names | No procedural setting. Article 139 names settings only where a particular program needs one — for example a hospital “as defined in article twenty-eight of the public health law” (§ 6902). Ambulatory, endoscopy, operating room and surgical do not appear at all. |
| Re-verification interval | Not stated. The cycle on the licence is registration, not competency: “a fee of fifty dollars for each triennial registration period” (§§ 6905, 6906). The article’s other recurring intervals are supervisory or programmatic, not checks on a nurse’s own skill (§§ 6908, 6909); nothing asks a nurse to re-demonstrate a clinical skill. |
| Where the record lives | Not addressed for nurses. Where Article 139 describes verifying competence it is never the nurse’s own — the aide whose ability to “safely and competently perform the advanced task” the RN personally verifies (§ 6909), and the nursing student’s simulation competencies (§ 6912). No file or roster is named for the RN’s own training. |
| CE hours | Not stated. Continuing education does not appear in Article 139, and it names no course. Its education provisions are qualifications for licensure and registration, not clinical training: a nursing degree at entry and, to keep a registration, a baccalaureate or higher within ten years of initial licensure (§ 6905). No contact-hour count; nothing about sedation. |
What the New York State Board for Nursing says
About sedation, nothing — checkable four ways, not asserted. Article 139 contains sedation zero times and no form of anesthesia; 8 NYCRR Part 64, §§ 64.1–64.8, contains neither word. The Office of the Professions’ RN & LPN Practice Issues index carried seven items when read on 2026-09-02 — none about sedation, the newest from September 2007. A read of op.nysed.gov/sitemap.xml the same day found nine of 3,398 URLs carrying sedation or anesthesia: seven dentistry, one dental hygiene, one podiatry, none in nursing (our own parse, not a Department figure). The podiatry one is a State Board for Podiatry guideline, not Board for Nursing guidance and not authority for what an RN may administer; the 2013 Administration of IV Anesthetic Agents by Non-Anesthetist RNs, still circulated as current, is not on op.nysed.gov at all.
An RN administering moderate sedation here works under § 6902’s scope test plus the employer’s own standard; the statute adds one limit in its own voice: “A nursing regimen shall be consistent with and shall not vary any existing medical regimen.” § 6909’s list of non-patient-specific standing orders does not include sedation, which is not a prohibition — procedural sedation runs on a patient-specific order, already inside § 6902. Beyond that, Article 139 states no rule about who may administer what, at what depth, after what training — and neither does Part 64. That is a finding about the nursing lane, not about all of New York law; check your facility’s licensure lane separately.
“provision of care supportive to or restorative of life and well-being, and executing medical regimens prescribed by a licensed physician, dentist or other licensed health care provider legally authorized under this title and in accordance with the commissioner’s regulations”
New York Education Law § 6902
What a New York facility should be able to show
Article 139 asks for no sedation record; these three are what is left after reading it honestly.
- The patient-specific order, and the written sedation policy it is carried out under — from a prescriber Part 64 § 64.6 recognizes for RN regimens. Neither Article 139 nor Part 64 supplies a sedation standard or asks you to write one, so the policy is your own — and the nursing statute is not the only law reaching your setting.
- Per-nurse evidence of initial education and training in moderate sedation, for every RN who administers or monitors it. Neither Article 139 nor Part 64 asks for this, so within the nursing lane nothing produces it except your own file.
- Per-nurse evidence of ongoing competence in moderate sedation, on an interval your own policy names — Article 139 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 New York facilities ask
Does the Board for Nursing have a moderate sedation position statement?
No. Sedation is not addressed in Article 139 or in Part 64, and the Board’s Practice Issues shelf carries no sedation item. Read the absence as an absence: not a sign the rule is filed elsewhere on the site, and not permission either.
Does New York set a renewal interval for sedation competency?
Not stated — Article 139 has no sedation competency requirement for an interval to attach to. The cycle it puts on the licence is registration (§§ 6905, 6906), a fee cycle rather than a competency check. A certificate with an expiry date makes your own interval visible on a roster.
Does New York require the CSRN™ course specifically?
No. Article 139 names no course and sets no continuing-education requirement, and no state mandates this specific one. Its one post-licensure education requirement is academic: to continue to maintain registration a nurse must “have attained a baccalaureate degree or higher in nursing within ten years of initial licensure in accordance with the commissioner’s regulations” (§ 6905). Nothing there names a sedation course or generates the training record a surveyor asks to see. CSRN™ is designed to serve as that evidence.
Compliance note (last reviewed September 2026): This page is educational information about Article 139 and what the Board for Nursing does and does not publish — not legal advice or a compliance determination. Quotations were checked against the article as published by the Office of the Professions on 2026-09-02 and cited by section; the URL counts above are our own read that day, not a published figure. Statements about Part 64 and the podiatry guideline are paraphrased from those documents, not the Board for Nursing. This page covers the nursing lane only — not the public health law, facility licensure or accreditation standards — and an absence there is not an absence everywhere in New York law. Confirm the current text, the law applying to your setting, and your own policy before relying on this summary. No state mandates this specific course.