Request By:
Lucille Wright, R.N.
Vice President, Kentucky Board
of Nursing Education and Nurse Registration
4010 Dupont Circle, Suite 430
Louisville, Kentucky 40207
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
You have attached a copy of a letter from a Rebecca Pike requesting an Attorney General's Opinion on the following facts and subject matter:
Ms. Pike works for the Veterans' Administration Medical Center in Lexington. The unit where she works has a graduate nurse who failed state boards. Between graduation and the time board results were returned, she took off orders, gave medications and narcotics with the cosignature of a registered nurse.
She states that even though the graduate nurse has now failed state boards, she is permitted to continue the activities which she previously was doing while she waited the results of her examination. The R.N.'s in the units have been told to continue to cosign her orders and medications as though she were still functioning under a work permit.
These facts appear to point up several statutes of the Nurse Practice Act. KRS 314.101, subsection 3 provides:
"A temporary work permit may be issued by the board to persons who have completed the requirements for, applied for and paid the fee for liccensure by examination or indorsement. Temporary work permits shall be issued only for the length of time required to process applications for indorsement or to conduct and determine the results of examinations and shall not be renewed. No temporary work permit shall be issued to an applicant who has failed the licensure examination."
Further, subsection 1 of that same statute provides, in part:
KRS 314.010 to 314.161 and 314.991 does not prohibit . . . the practice of any legally qualified nurse of another state who is employed by the U.S. Government or any bureau, division, or agency thereof while in the discharge of his or her official duties; or the employment for the purpose of giving nursing assistance of aides, technicians, orderlies, attendants, or other ancillary workers in private homes, hospitals, nursing homes, physicians' offices, or other institutions and agencies."
So, a person who is licensed in another state may be employed by the U.S. Government in an institution in this State without having to have a license to practice as a nurse in Kentucky, However, this law does not permit a person who is not licensed by any state to practice as a nurse in Kentucky, even in a federal institution. While the board of nursing could not take any action against the federal institution as such, it could take action against the individual who is practicing illegally as a licensed nurse, because KRS 314.031, subsection 1, provides:
"It shall be unlawful for any person to call or hold himself out as or use the title of nurse or to practice or offer to practice as a nurse unless licensed under KRS 314.011 to KRS 314.161 and 314.991.
Also, KRS 314.041(6) provides:
"Any person who holds a license to practice as a registered nurse in this state shall have the right to use the title 'registered nurse' and the abbreviation 'R.N.' No other person shall assume such title or use such abbreviation or any other words, letters, signs, or figures to indicate that the person using the same is a registered nurse. No person shall practice as a registered nurse unless licensed under this section." (Emphasis supplied.)