General Content
206. Who may Practice as Registered Nurses. – Any resident of the State of New York, being over the age of twenty-one years and of good moral character, holding a diploma from a training-school for nurses connected with a hospital or sanitarium giving a course of at least two years, and registered by the Regents of the University of the State of New York as maintaining in this and other respects proper standards, all of which shall be determined by said Regents, and who shall have received from the said Regents a certificate of his or her qualifications to practice as a registered nurse, shall be styled and known as a registered nurse, and no other person shall assume such title, or use the abbreviation “R.N.” or any other words, letters, or figures to indicate that the person using the same is such a registered nurse. Before beginning to practice nursing every such registered nurse shall cause such certificate to be recorded in the County Clerk’s office of the county of his or her residence with an affidavit of his or her identity as the person to whom the same was so issued and of his or her place of residence within such county. In the month of January, nineteen hundred and six, and in every thirty-sixth month thereafter, every registered nurse shall again cause his or her certificate to be recorded in the said County Clerk’s office, with an affidavit of his or her identity as the person to whom the same was issued and of his or her place of residence at the time of such re-registration. Nothing contained in this act shall be considered as conferring any authority to practice medicine or to undertake the treatment or cure of disease in violation of article eight of this chapter.
207. Board of Examiners; Examination; Fees. – Upon the taking effect of this act the New York State Nurses’ Association shall nominate for examiners ten of their members who have had not less than five years’ experience in their profession, and at each annual meeting of said association thereafter two other candidates. The Regents of the University of the State of New York shall appoint a board of five examiners from such list. One member of said board shall be appointed for one year, one for two years, one for three years, one for four years, and one for five years. Upon the expiration of the term of office of any examiner the said Regents shall likewise fill the vacancy for a term of five years and until his or her successor is chosen. An unexpired term of an examiner caused by death, resignation, or otherwise shall be filled by the Regents in the same manner as an original appointment is made. The same Regents, with the advice of the Board of Examiners above provided for, shall make rules for the examination of nurses applying for certification under this act, and shall charge for examination and for certification a fee of five dollars to meet actual expenses, and shall report annually their receipts and expenditures under the provisions of this act to the State Comptroller, and pay the balance of receipts over expenditures to the State Treasurer. The said Regents may revoke any such certificate for sufficient cause after written notice to the holder thereof and hearing thereon. No person shall thereafter practice as a registered nurse under any such revoked certificate.
208. Waiver of Examinations. – The Regents of the University of the State of New York may, upon the recommendation of said Board of Examiners, waive the examination of persons possessing the qualifications mentioned in section two hundred and six, who shall have been graduated before, or who are in training at the time of, the passage of this act and shall hereafter be graduated, and of such persons now in the practice of nursing as have had three-years’ experience in a general hospital prior to the passage of this act, who shall apply in writing for such certificate within three years after the passage of this act, and shall also grant a certificate to any nurse of good moral character, who has been engaged in the actual practice of nursing for not less than three years next prior to the passage of this act, who shall satisfactorily pass an examination in practical nursing within three years hereafter.
209. Violations of this Article. – Any violation of this article shall be a misdemeanor. When any prosecution under this article is made on complaint of the new York State Nurses’ Association, the certificate of incorporation of which was filed and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State on the second day of April, nineteen hundred and two, the fines collected shall be paid to said association, and any excess in the amount of fines so paid over the expenses incurred by said association in enforcing the provisions of this article shall be paid at the end of each year to the Treasurer of the State of New York.
2. Article twelve of the public health law, consisting of sections two hundred and ten and two hundred and twenty inclusive, is hereby renumbered as article thirteen of said law.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.