Penal Provisions - Nursing - Business & Professions - CA

Section § 2795

This law prohibits anyone from practicing or pretending to practice nursing in California without having an active nursing license. It also bans using titles or any indication that someone is a qualified nurse unless they are officially licensed or certified as such.

Except as provided in this chapter, it is unlawful for any person to do any of the following:

(a) To practice or to offer to practice nursing in this state unless the person holds a license in an active status.

(b) To use any title, sign, card, or device to indicate that he or she is qualified to practice or is practicing nursing, unless the person has been duly licensed or certified under this chapter.

nursing license active status practice nursing

Section § 2796

This law makes it illegal for someone without the proper nursing license or certification to claim they're a nurse. This includes using titles like 'registered nurse,' initials like 'R.N.,' or phrases like 'graduate nurse' or 'nurse anesthetist.' It also makes it illegal to pretend to be a professional nurse or act as if you're licensed to practice nursing.

It is unlawful for any person or persons not licensed or certified as provided in this chapter to use the title “registered nurse,” the letters “R.N. ,” or the words “graduate nurse,” “trained nurse,” or “nurse anesthetist.”

It is unlawful for any person or persons not licensed or certified as provided in this chapter to impersonate a professional nurse or pretend to be licensed to practice professional nursing as provided in this chapter.

unlicensed practice registered nurse R.N.

Section § 2797

This law makes it illegal for someone to lie or pretend to be someone else during any exam or application for a professional license, or help someone else do so.

It is unlawful for a person to wilfully make any false representation or to impersonate any other person or permit or aid any person in any manner to impersonate him in connection with any examination or application for a license, or request to be examined or licensed.

false representation impersonation license application

Section § 2798

This law makes it illegal to run a nursing school in California unless it is approved by the state's nursing board. If the board suspects that a school is enrolling students into an unapproved nursing program, it will order the school to stop immediately. It will also inform relevant authorities like the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education and the Attorney General. Furthermore, any registered nurse who helps or engages in these unauthorized activities is committing unprofessional conduct. However, this rule doesn't apply to certain schools described in another section of the law.

(a) It is unlawful for anyone to conduct a school of nursing unless the school has been approved by the board.

(b) If the board has a reasonable belief, either by complaint or otherwise, that a school is allowing students to apply for its nursing program and that nursing program does not have the approval of the board, the board shall immediately order the school to cease and desist from offering students the ability to enroll in its nursing program. The board shall also notify the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education and the Attorney General’s office that the school is offering students the ability to enroll in a nursing program that does not have the approval of the board.

(c) It shall be unprofessional conduct for any registered nurse to violate or attempt to violate, either directly or indirectly, or to assist or abet the violation of, this section.

(d) This section is not applicable to schools conducted under Section 2789 of this chapter.

nursing school approval unapproved nursing programs cease and desist order

Section § 2799

If someone breaks the rules in this chapter, they commit a misdemeanor and could face jail time from 10 days to a year, a fine between $20 and $1,000, or both jail time and a fine.

Any person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon a conviction thereof shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than 10 days nor more than one year, or by a fine of not less than twenty dollars ($20) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both such fine and imprisonment.

misdemeanor county jail fine

Section § 2800

This section of the law says that most of its rules don't apply to people or schools specifically exempted by another law (Section 2731), or to religious schools training their members to care for the sick according to their beliefs. Members of such churches can call themselves 'nurse,' but they can't use titles like 'registered nurse' or abbreviations such as 'R.N.' that might imply they are professionally licensed.

None of the sections in this article, except Sections 2796 and 2797, shall be applicable to any person or persons specifically exempted from the general provisions of this act by Section 2731 hereof, or to schools conducted by any well-recognized church or denomination for the purpose of training the adherents of the church or denomination in the care of the sick in accordance with its religious tenets. An adherent of any well-recognized church or denomination who engages in nursing or the care of the sick in connection with the practice of the religious tenets of the well-recognized church or denomination may use the word “nurse” in connection with or following their name, provided they shall not use the title “registered nurse,” the letters “R.N.,” the words “graduate nurse,” “trained nurse,” “nurse anesthetist,” or any other name, word, or symbol in connection with or following their name so as to lead another or others to believe that they are a professional nurse licensed under the provisions of this chapter.

exemption from provisions church schools religious training