COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 15
(By Senator Craigo)
____________
[Originating in the Committee on Health and Human Resources;
reported February 24, 1994.]
____________
A BILL 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 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.
§30-7-2. 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 unlawfulfor 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) The nurse
may only administer nursing care to the patient whom they are
accompanying in this state; (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 himself 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.