Chapter 913. To define the term of “registered nurse” and to provide for the registration of nurses in the District of Columbia
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CHAP. 913.— An Act To define the term of “registered nurse” and to provide for the registration of nurses in the District of Columbia. February 9, 1907. [[H. R. 12690](/us/bill/59/hr/22584).] [[Public, No. 80](/us/pl/59/80).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That from and after the District of Columbia.Registered nurses regulations.expiration of the ninety days immediately following the passage of this Act no person shall, in the District of Columbia, in any manner whatsoever, represent herself to be a registered nurse, or allow herself to be so represented, unless she has been and is registered by the nurses’ examining board in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
Sec. 2. That upon the taking effect of this Act the Graduate Nurses’ Nurses’ examining board.Qualifications.Association of the District of Columbia shall nominate ten of its members who have had not less than five years’ experience in the profession. These nominations shall be submitted to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, who shall, from said nominations, appoint, 888within thirty days after said nominations are submitted to them, a Appointments.nurses’ examining board to be composed of five members.
All appointments shall be made so that the term of one member shall expire on the thirtieth day of June of each year, and upon the expiration of the Vacancies.term of office of any examiner the said Commissioners shall likewise till the vacancy for a term of live years from a list of three nominees submitted to them each year by the Graduate Nurses’ Association of the District of Columbia. An unexpired term shall be tilled by said Commissioners from three additional names furnished by the Graduate Oath.Nurses’ Association upon request of the said Commissioners.
No member of said board shall enter upon the discharge of her duties until she has taken oath to faithfully and impartially perform the same; and the said Commissioners may remove any member of said board for neglect of duty or for any just cause. Sec. 3. Organization of board.Meetings. That the nurses’ examining board shall meet in the District of Columbia within ten days after their appointment and organize the board, and annually thereafter shall meet in the month of April and shall elect from its members a president, and also a secretary who By-laws.shall be treasurer.
It shall frame all such by-laws as it shall deem necessary for carrying into effect the provisions of this Act, and may Records.amend such rules from time to time at discretion of said board. The secretary shall be required to keep a record of all meetings of the board, and also a register of the names of all nurses duly registered under this Act, and to furnish a certificate of registration to all such Examinations.nurses. The said board shall hold examinations not less frequently than once a year, and the notice of each examination shall be given in one daily newspaper published in Washington City and in one nursing journal at least thirty days prior to said examination.
Sec. 4. Applications for registration. That every nurse desiring to style herself “a registered nurse” in the District of Columbia shall make application to the nurses’ Fee.examining board for registration, and at the time of making such application Requirements.shall pay to the treasurer of said board five dollars. Said applicant must furnish satisfactory evidence that she is over twenty-three years of age. of good moral character, and free from habits liable to interfere with her services as a nurse, and. further, that she holds a diploma from a training school for nurses which has been registered *Proviso.*Training school.by the nurses’ examining board of the District of Columbia: *Provided*, *however*, That no training school shall be registered which does not maintain proper educational standards and give not less than two years’ training in a general hospital, or instruction of the same kind, and, to at least the same extent, as that given in the general hospital, all of which shall be determined by the nurses’ examining board.
Sec. 5. Persons entitled to registration. That any person possessing the qualifications required in section four of this Act who has been engaged in nursing in the District of Columbia five years after graduation immediately preceding the passage of this Act, or shall have graduated from any training school in the District of Columbia within the live years immediately preceding the passage of this Act, shall be entitled to registration Practical examination.without examination upon payment of the registration fee.
And, further, that any person who has been engaged in nursing in the District of Columbia for four years immediately preceding the passage of this Act and shall have spent, in addition, one year in a hospital or sanatorium, shall be permitted to register after passing a practical *Proviso.*Restriction.examination: *Provided*, That such certificates shall not declare that the persons holding them have fulfilled all the requirements expressed in section four. Sec. 6. Revocation of certificates.
That the registration of any person as a nurse in the District of Columbia may be revoked and the certificate of such person canceled if she be found to have obtained the same by fraud, or be found guilty by the nurses’ examining board of any act derogatory to the standing 889and morals of the profession of nursing. But before any certificate Notice of charges.shall be revoked the holder thereof shall be entitled to thirty days’ notice of the charges against her, and after a full and fair hearing the Hearings.certificate can be revoked by a majority vote of the whole board.
Sec. 7. That all expenses incident to the execution of the provisions Expenses, etc.of this Act shall be paid from the fees collected from applicants for registration as nurses, and if any balance remains on hand on the thirtieth day of June of any year the secretary and treasurer of the nurses’ examining board shall receive of such balance the sum of one hundred dollars, and each other member of the said board shall receive five dollars for each day actually spent in the discharge of official duties.
All moneys shall be paid to the treasurer of the board and shall be paid out under the orders of the board. Sec. 8. That any person who shall violate any of the provisions of Punishment for violation.this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the workhouse fora period not exceeding sixty days. Sec. 9. That the nurses’ examining board shall have power to register, Professional nurses registered elsewhere.in like manner, without examination, any person who has been registered as a professional nurse in another State or Territory under laws which in the opinion of said board maintains a standard substantially equivalent to that provided for by this Act.
Sec. 10. That nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent any Persons not registered may nurse.person from nursing any other person in the District of Columbia either gratuitously or for hire, provided that such person so nursing shall not represent herself as being a registered nurse. Nothing in Restriction.this Act shall be construed as authorizing any person to practice medicine or surgery, or midwifery, in said District otherwise than in accordance with an Act entitled “An Act to regulate the practice of Vol. 29, p. 198.medicine and surgery, to license physicians and surgeons, and to punish persons violating the provisions thereof,” approved June third, eighteen hundred and ninety-six.
Sec. 11. That the word “she” and the derivatives thereof, wherever Word “she” construed.they occur in this Act, shall be construed so as to include the word “he” and derivatives. Approved, February 9, 1907.