Appendix A: California Department of Education (CDE) K.C. Settlement Agreement and Legal Advisory
how they hold themselves out. The Nurses would interpret the medical-orders exception
similarly, yet the same Legislature, in the same act and section, chose the different words —
“ assume to practice as a . . . nurse” — ( ibid ., italics added) to qualify the exception for
unlicensed persons who merely carry out medical orders. The inescapable inference is that the
Legislature, by using different words to define the two exceptions, intended them to have
different meanings.
The single prior interpretation of the medical-orders exception is consistent with our
conclusion. The Attorney General has described that exception, and the NPA ’ s related penal
provisions, as “show[ing] a legislative intent to prohibit any person from holding out to the
public that [he or] she is specially trained or registered in the nursing profession unless said
person is licensed by the state of C alifornia in this field.” ( Registered Nurse , 32
Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 159, 160 (1958), referring to Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 2727, subd. (e) [medical-
orders exception; unlicensed person carrying out medical orders may not assume to practice as a
nurse], 2795 [unlawful to use any title, sign, card or device to indicate nursing licensure], and
2796 [unlawful to use the titles “registered,” “graduate” or “trained nurse,” or the letters
“R.N.”].) Thus, the Attorney General concluded, an unlicensed person employed by a physician
as a “doctor’s nurse” was forbidden to use titles confusingly similar to “registered nurse,” such
as “ ‘ Registered Doctor ’ s Nurse ’ or the abbreviation ‘ R.D.N. ’ or any title, or wear or display any
pin that would indicate that said person is duly licensed as a registered nurse under the laws of
the state of California.” ( Registered Nurse , supra, at p. 159; cf. Kolnick v. Board of Medical
Quality Assurance (1980) 101 Cal.App.3d 80, 84 [declining to construe the exception].)
BP 2006 – Provision of Healthcare Services
Page 41
Desert Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area (DMSELPA) (rev. 11/16)
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator