Snelson v. Culton Bd. Of Registration Of Nurses.

• Citation: 42 A.2d 505
• Parties: SNELSON v. CULTON et al., Board of Registration of Nurses.
• Decision Date: 14 May 1945
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (US)

42 A.2d 505

SNELSON

v.CULTON et al., Board of Registration of Nurses.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

May 14, 1945.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Cumberland County.

Petition by Irene Sabin Snelson against C. Maude Culton and others, Board of Registration of Nurses, for a writ of mandamus for admission to examination for registration as a registered nurse. A demurrer to respondents' return was sustained and a peremptory writ was awarded, and respondents bring exceptions which are certified.

Exceptions sustained, writ quashed and petition dismissed.

Jacob H. Berman, Edward J. Berman, and Sidney W. Wernick, all of Portland, for petitioner.

Frank I. Cowan, Atty. Gen., and Neal A. Donahue, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondents.

Before STURGIS, C. J., and THAXTER, HUDSON, MANSER, and MURCHIE, JJ.

STURGIS, Chief Justice.

The petitioner for mandamus in this proceeding applied to the Maine Board of Registration of Nurses for examination for registration and certification as a registered nurse and her application was denied. She alleges in her petition and the alternative writ which issued that she was eligible for registration and the refusal to admit her to examination was illegal and a violation of her constitutional rights. The respondents, without traverse, returned that for lack of required qualifications the petitioner was not entitled to examination and prayed that the writ be quashed. Demurrer to the return was sustained and peremptory writ awarded. Respondents' exceptions are certified.

In this jurisdiction any person may nurse the sick gratuitously or for hire without a license or permit and nursing as a calling is open to all alike regardless of age, sex or qualifications and free from governmental regulation. There is no distinction in this regard between the professional and the private or the trained and the merely experienced nurse or even the friend or relative who assists in time of need. Their right to nurse the sick is the same and unrestricted.

The State of Maine, however, in current legislation provides for the registration and certification of professional trained nurses and a register of their names at all times open to public scrutiny, and commits the administration of the law to a Board of Registration of Nurses constituted as directed and with powers and duties there defined. Registration is purely voluntary and in no way compulsory. It is open by examination to all professional trained nurses of requisite qualifications and without examination to those who are duly registered in other states. And while the practice of professional nursing as a registered nurse without a certificate of registration is prohibited, it is expressly provided that the law does not apply to the nursing of the sick by any person who does not represent himself or herself to be a registered nurse. R.S.1930, c. 21, §§ 18 to 24; P.L.1935, c. 127; P.L.1939, c. 87. The purpose of this law clearly is not to regulate or control the practice of nursing as a calling but to designate by public registry and certification those nurses for whose qualifications the State is willing to vouch and to prevent others who are not entitled to it from falsely claiming such sponsorship. See State ex rel. Marshall v. District Court, 50 Mont. 289, 296, et seq., 146 P. 743, Ann.Cas. 164; Compare Lehmann v. State Board, 208 Ala. 185, 94 So. 94; State v. De Verges, 153 La. 349, 350, 95 So. 805, 27 A.L.R. 1526; People v. Marlowe, 283 N.Y.S. 474; Henry v. State, 97 Tex.Cr.R. 67, 260 S.W. 190.

In this proceeding only the provisions of the statute relating to admission to examination of applicants for registration are of direct concern. Section 20, Chap. 21, R.S.1930, as amended, in its material parts, reads:

‘Application for registration shall be made upon blanks furnished by the board and shall be signed and sworn to by applicant.

‘The board shall admit to examination for registration any applicant who shall pay a fee of $10 and submit satisfactory evidence that he or she:

‘(a) Is more than 21 years of age and of good moral character;

‘(b) Has had at least 2 years high school education or its equivalent; provided, however, that any applicant beginning training in an approved school as hereinafter provided after September 1, 1935, shall submit satisfactory evidence that he or she has graduated from a class A secondary school or has education equivalent thereto.

‘(c) Has taken a full course of not less than 2 years in the same school of nursing from which he or she has graduated and received a diploma, said school of nursing to be one approved by the board of registration, and presided over by a nurse registered in accordance with the requirements of sections 18 to 24 inclusive, provided, however, in case of transfer of a student nurse from an accredited school of nursing because of closing of the school of nursing the minimum time that the candidate shall spend in the school of nursing from which she receives her diploma shall be 1 year.’

Under this section of the statute no applicant for registration and certification as a registered nurse can be admitted to examination unless he or she has complied with all the conditions enumerated, and no warrant can be found in it for waiving any of its provisions, least of all that requiring training in an approved school of nursing presided over by a nurse registered here. That provision in its reference to schools is all inclusive and an intent to distinguish between schools in and out of the State is not apparent in the plain and unambiguous...