No. CS/CS/SB 36
Filed under Healthcare.
Use of Professional Nursing Titles; Providing that licensed advanced practice registered nurses who hold specified degrees may use titles and abbreviations associated with those degrees in a specified manner; prohibiting such persons from holding themselves out to patients or prospective patients as a doctor in advertising without also clearly denoting their licensed profession, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDLets a licensed advanced practice registered nurse who also holds a Ph.D. or Doctor of Nursing Practice degree use the "Ph.D." or "D.N.P." title and abbreviation, matching whichever doctoral degree the nurse actually holds.
In a clinical setting, that nurse cannot advertise or use signage presenting themselves as "a doctor" to patients without also clearly stating their actual licensed profession alongside the doctoral title.
Breaking this new advertising rule is not a crime, unlike most violations of the nurse-titles law, which remain a first-degree misdemeanor, but it can still trigger discipline from the nursing board.
AIA nurse using a doctoral title in a clinical setting cannot present as a doctor to patients in advertising or signage the practitioner produces without also clearly stating the actual licensed profession.
AIA licensed advanced practice registered nurse who also holds a Ph.D. or Doctor of Nursing Practice degree may use the matching doctoral title and abbreviation, tied to the specific degree the nurse actually holds.
AIViolating the new doctoral-title disclosure rule is carved out of the criminal misdemeanor penalty that otherwise applies to this title-restriction law, and instead becomes grounds for professional disciplinary action.