CHAPTER 294

AN ACT to amend and reenact § 54-276.7 as amended of the Code of Vir-
ginia, relating to the employment of licensed or unlicensed practi-
tioners as internes or residents in hospitals. 2 Bs

[S 55]

Approved March 12, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 54-276.7, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, be amended
and reenacted as follows:

§ 54-276.7. Internes and residents in hospitals—Unlicensed or
licensed practitioners may be employed as internes or residents in a legally
established and licensed hospital provided their practice is confined strictly
to persons who are bona fide patients within the hosiptal or who receive
treatment and advice in an organized outpatient department of the
hospital to which ambulant patients regularly come for professional
services rendered under supervision of licensed members of the hospital
staff, and provided, further, that such employment is a part of a regularly
established course of instruction for such internes or residents. Such *
interne or resident shall be responsible and accountable at all times to a
licensed member of the staff. No unlicensed practitioner may be employed
by any hospital unless he has completed successfully the preliminary
academic education required for admission to examinations given by the
Board in his particular field of practice, or holds a valid license issued in
a state maintaining standards acceptable for reciprocity with this State.
No graduate of a substandard medical school may be employed as an
interne or resident in any hospital or in any capacity involving profes-
sional duties, except that the Board may in its discretion under unusual,
temporary or emergency conditions permit the employment of graduates
of such schools under such restrictions and conditions as the Board may
prescribe in each particular case. The Board may determine the extent
and scope of the duties and professional services which may be rendered
by unlicensed internes and residents whenever such duties and services
are not fixed by existing law.

On * or after January * one, nineteen hundred forty-nine, no person
shall serve as an * interne or resident in any hospital in this State after a
period of three years has elapsed from the date on which his services
as * interne or resident first commenced in the State; provided, however,
that if at the end of such three year period an interne or resident is taking
a special course of training in a hospital approved by the American
Medical Association for such specified training, such hospital may, with the
consent of the Board first obtained, continue the employment for such
additional period not in excess of two years as may be required for the
completion of the course, during which additional period such * interne
or resident may continue his service in the hospital as authorized herein.
The Board may prescribe such rules and regulations not in conflict with
existing law and require such reports from hospitals in the State as may
be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.