Mississippi Bd. of Nursing v. Belk

481 So. 2d 826, 1985 Miss. LEXIS 2343
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 11, 1985
Docket55856
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 481 So. 2d 826 (Mississippi Bd. of Nursing v. Belk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mississippi Bd. of Nursing v. Belk, 481 So. 2d 826, 1985 Miss. LEXIS 2343 (Mich. 1985).

Opinion

481 So.2d 826 (1985)

MISSISSIPPI BOARD OF NURSING
v.
Eunice BELK.

No. 55856.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 11, 1985.

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen. by Carolyn B. Mills, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellant.

John L. Hatcher, Cleveland, for appellee.

*827 Before WALKER, P.J., and DAN M. LEE and SULLIVAN, JJ.

DAN M. LEE, Justice, for the Court:

Eunice Belk appeared before the Mississippi Board of Nursing on January 17, 1979, to answer charges that she was guilty of professional misconduct in failing to follow the Board's procedures for certification as a nurse anesthetist. The Board found her guilty of professional misconduct, and held that she would not be allowed to practice as a nurse anesthetist in Mississippi until she complied with the Board's certification procedures. Belk appealed to the Chancery Court of Bolivar County, assigning the following as error:

(1) The record contains no copies of any rules or regulations of the Board pertaining to a grandfather clause for anesthetists, certified or otherwise, but only some correspondence on the subject.
(2) The purported rules and regulations of the Board regarding a more stringent grandfather clause for anesthetists is beyond the scope and authority of the Mississippi Nursing Practice Law, and there is no proof of their joint adoption by the State Board of Health.
(3) The purported rules and regulations of the Board are unconstitutional and in violation of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Federal and State constitutions by providing a more restrictive grandfather clause for anesthetists than the legislature provides itself for other registered nurses.
(4) Section 73-15-29(f), Miss.Code of 1972, as amended, providing for revocation of license for `professional misconduct' is unconstitutionally vague and uncertain and without sufficient specific criteria for a person to know in advance what constitutes grounds for revocation of license.
(5) The findings of the Board are not supported by credible evidence and its decision that appellee was guilty of professional misconduct is unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.

The Board of Nursing moved to dismiss the appeal on the grounds that it was taken out of the statutory time limit. The chancellor found that the delay in taking the appeal was justifiable, and the Board of Nursing took an interlocutory appeal on that issue to this Court. That appeal was dismissed on July 30, 1980, 386 So.2d 400, in case # 51,907, in an opinion not designated for publication. Finding that the appeal would not dispose of the entire cause, it was dismissed by this Court and remanded to the Chancery Court of Bolivar County.

On May 24, 1984, the chancellor issued his order, finding for Eunice Belk on all of the aforementioned assignments of error. He reversed the decision of the Mississippi Board of Nursing and reinstated Belk's license to practice as a nurse anesthetist. The Board of Nursing has appealed, and assigns the following as error:

Proposition 1. The chancellor erred in considering matters outside the record.
Proposition 2. The rules and regulations of the Mississippi Board of Nursing are proper and not beyond the scope and authority of the Board.
Proposition 3. The rules and regulations of the Board are not more restrictive toward certified registered nurse anesthetists.
Proposition 4. The lower court erred in finding that the term "professional misconduct" is without specific criteria.
Proposition 5. The lower court erred in finding that the Board's decision was unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious.

FACTS

At the time of her hearing before the Mississippi Board of Nursing, in 1979, Eunice Belk had been a registered nurse for twenty-one years. She had been a nurse anesthetist for sixteen years, having graduated from the school of anesthesia of Charity Hospital in New Orleans in 1962. At the time she graduated from school, special certification as a nurse anesthetist was not required, so Belk did not take the examination which would have qualified her as a member of the anesthetist association. Until *828 1975, the association was merely a professional society, and membership in the association did not denote special professional qualifications. Belk testified that her failure to take the qualifying examination was not due to lack of interest, but due, rather, to the fact that the staff shortage at the Bolivar County Hospital prevented her from taking time off to study for it.

In December, 1978, Belk received a letter from the Mississippi Board of Nursing, in which she was informed that the Board would seek the revocation or suspension of her nursing license. The Board charged her with a violation of Miss. Code Ann. § 73-15-29(f) (1972) in practicing nursing beyond the authorized scope of her license. The statute, as it read at that time, stated:

The board shall have power to deny, revoke or suspend any license to practice nursing issued by the board or applied for in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, or to otherwise order and enforce suspension or other discipline less than revocation, upon proof that such person:
.....
(f) is guilty of professional misconduct.

The Board of Nursing defines "professional misconduct" as, among other things: "Practicing nursing beyond the authorized scope of the license or directing others to practice beyond their authorized scope."

In 1977, the Board of Nursing promulgated new rules and regulations with regard to the certification of nurse anesthetists. A letter from the Board, dated March 25, 1977, indicated that certain documents were to be sent to the Board for certification in certain "expanded roles," and indicated that a certified registered nurse anesthetist was to be considered as working in an expanded role. However, at the time the letter was sent, Belk was not a certified registered nurse anesthetist because she had never taken the qualifying exam. Another letter, dated April 21, 1977, further explained these requirements. Also included in the record was a copy of administrative procedures for the expanded role of the registered nurse. Those procedures included, for the nurse educated outside Mississippi, evidence of national certification or state certification. The Board also promulgated a "grandfather clause" which would exempt certain nurses from being required to comply with the new certification procedures. The grandfather clause allowed for certification of nurses who had practiced in the capacity of a nurse anesthetist prior to 1970 and who had practiced for a continuous period of fifteen years. However, to take advantage of this clause, the applicant had to notify the Board of Nursing by February 1, 1978, and submit to the Board a protocol listing all medical acts and types of anesthesia being administered. At the hearing, Belk contended that she had never received any of these documents, nor was she informed of them by her supervisors.

When the hearing began, Belk made two motions to the Board.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mississippi Power Co. v. Mississippi Public Service Commission
168 So. 3d 905 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2015)
Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club v. New Mexico Mining Commission
2003 NMSC 005 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 2002)
Mississippi Department of Corrections v. Gooden
766 So. 2d 783 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2000)
Miller v. State
740 So. 2d 858 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1999)
ONE 1992 TOYOTA v. State
721 So. 2d 609 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1998)
Joshua Charles Miller v. State of Mississippi
Mississippi Supreme Court, 1997
Bullock v. Mississippi Employment Security Commission
697 So. 2d 1147 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1997)
Toyota 4-Runner 1992 v. State of MS
Mississippi Supreme Court, 1994
Don Bullock v. Employment Scrty Comm, MS
Mississippi Supreme Court, 1993
The Mississippi Bar v. Hall
612 So. 2d 1075 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1992)
State Ex Rel. Pittman v. PUB. SERV. COM'N
520 So. 2d 1355 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1987)
St. Bd. of Psychological Ex. v. Hosford
508 So. 2d 1049 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1987)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
481 So. 2d 826, 1985 Miss. LEXIS 2343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mississippi-bd-of-nursing-v-belk-miss-1985.