ENROLLED
H.
B.
4469
(By Delegates P. White, Gallagher, Martin, Leach,
Brown, Huntwork and Petersen)
[Passed March 9, 1994; in effect from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact section two, article seven, chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to permitting nurses who are licensed in other states to provide nursing care to patients who are briefly visiting West Virginia or who are in transit through West Virginia.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section two, article seven, chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7. REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL NURSES.
§
30
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7
-
2.
License required to practice.
In order to safeguard life and health, any person practicing or offering to practice registered professional nursing in this state for compensation shall hereafter be required to submit evidence that he or she is qualified so to practice, and shall be licensed as hereinafter provided. After the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred sixty-five, it shall be unlawful for any person not licensed under the provisions of this article to practice or to offer to practice registered professional nursing in this state, or to use any title, sign, card or device to indicate that such person is a registered professional nurse:
Provided,
That any professional nurse holding an active, unencumbered license to practice in another state, who accompanies a patient to whom he or she administers nursing care while such patient is in transit or being transported into, out of, or through this state, may practice without a license issued under this article with the following limitations: (a) Such nurse may only administer nursing care to the patient whom they are accompanying in this state; and (b) under no circumstances is any such nurse authorized to practice nursing in this state for longer than forty-eight hours within any three-month period; and (c) under no circumstances shall any such nurse hold him or herself out as a registered professional nurse licensed in this state. Such forty-eight hour period shall commence and run from the time such nurse first enters the borders of this state in the company of his or her patient and therefrom run continuously, whether or not such nurse dispenses nursing care, until such forty-eight hour period has elapsed.