Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 464 > Part I - Nurse Practice Act

• Accredited program: means a program for the prelicensure education of professional or practical nurses that is conducted in the United States at an educational institution, whether in this state, another state, or the District of Columbia, and that is accredited by a specialized nursing accrediting agency that is nationally recognized by the United States Secretary of Education to accredit nursing education programs. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Advanced or specialized nursing practice: means , in addition to the practice of professional nursing, the performance of advanced-level nursing acts approved by the board which, by virtue of postbasic specialized education, training, and experience, are appropriately performed by an advanced practice registered nurse. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Advanced practice registered nurse: means any person licensed in this state to practice professional nursing and who is licensed in an advanced nursing practice, including certified nurse midwives, certified nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists, and psychiatric nurses. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Approved program: means a program for the prelicensure education of professional or practical nurses that is conducted in the state at an educational institution and that is approved under…. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Autonomous practice: means advanced nursing practice by an advanced practice registered nurse who is registered under…. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board: means the Board of Nursing. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Clinical preceptor: means a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse who is employed by a clinical training facility to serve as a role model and clinical resource person for a specified period to students enrolled in an approved program. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Clinical simulation: means a strategy used to replicate clinical practice as closely as possible to teach theory, assessment, technology, pharmacology, and skills. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Clinical training: means direct nursing care experiences with patients or clients, or clinical simulation of such experiences, which offer the student the opportunity to integrate, apply, and refine specific skills and abilities based on theoretical concepts and scientific principles. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Commission: means the Florida Public Service Commission. See Florida Statutes 364.02
• Community-based clinical experience: means activities consistent with the curriculum and involving individuals, families, and groups with the intent of promoting wellness, maintaining health, and preventing illness. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Competitive local exchange telecommunications company: means any company certificated by the commission to provide local exchange telecommunications services in this state on or after July 1, 1995. See Florida Statutes 364.02
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Curriculum: means a planned sequence of course offerings and learning experiences that comprise a nursing education program. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the Department of Health. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Educational institution: means a school, college, or university. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Electric utility: means any municipality, authority, commission, or other public body, investor-owned electric utility, or rural electric cooperative which owns, maintains, or operates an electrical energy generation, transmission, or distribution system within the state on June 25, 1975. See Florida Statutes 361.11
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Foreign public utility: means any person, as defined in subsection (3), the principal location or principal place of business of which is not located within this state, which owns, maintains, or operates facilities for the generation, transmission, or distribution of electrical energy and which supplies electricity to retail or wholesale customers, or both, on a continuous, reliable, and dependable basis; or any affiliate or subsidiary of such person, the business of which is limited to the generation or transmission, or both, of electrical energy and activities reasonably incidental thereto. See Florida Statutes 361.11
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Graduate passage rate: means the percentage of a program's graduates who, as first-time test takers, pass the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensing Examination during a calendar year, as calculated by the contract testing service of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Licensed practical nurse: means any person licensed in this state or holding an active multistate license under…. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local exchange telecommunications company: means any company certificated by the commission to provide local exchange telecommunications service in this state on or before June 30, 1995. See Florida Statutes 364.02
• minor: includes any person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Nursing diagnosis: means the observation and evaluation of physical or mental conditions, behaviors, signs and symptoms of illness, and reactions to treatment and the determination as to whether such conditions, signs, symptoms, and reactions represent a deviation from normal. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Nursing treatment: means the establishment and implementation of a nursing regimen for the care and comfort of individuals, the prevention of illness, and the education, restoration, and maintenance of health. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Person: means :
  (a) Any natural person;
  (b) The United States; any state; any municipality, political subdivision, or municipal corporation created by or pursuant to the laws of the United States or any state; or any board, corporation, or other entity or body declared by or pursuant to the laws of the United States or any state to be a department, agency, or instrumentality of any thereof;
  (c) Any corporation, not-for-profit corporation, firm, partnership, cooperative association, electric cooperative, or business trust of any nature whatsoever organized and existing under the laws of the United States or any state; or
  (d) Any foreign country; any political subdivision or governmental unit of a foreign country; or any corporation, not-for-profit corporation, firm, partnership, cooperative association, electric cooperative, or business trust of any nature whatsoever organized and existing under the laws of a foreign country or of a political subdivision or governmental unit of a foreign country. See Florida Statutes 361.11
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Practice of practical nursing: means the performance of selected acts, including the administration of treatments and medications, in the care of the ill, injured, or infirm; the promotion of wellness, maintenance of health, and prevention of illness of others under the direction of a registered nurse, a licensed physician, a licensed osteopathic physician, a licensed podiatric physician, or a licensed dentist; and the teaching of general principles of health and wellness to the public and to students other than nursing students. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Practice of professional nursing: means the performance of those acts requiring substantial specialized knowledge, judgment, and nursing skill based upon applied principles of psychological, biological, physical, and social sciences which shall include, but not be limited to:
  (a) The observation, assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation of care; health teaching and counseling of the ill, injured, or infirm; and the promotion of wellness, maintenance of health, and prevention of illness of others. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Probationary status: means the status of an approved program that is placed on such status pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Project: means a joint electric power supply project and any and all facilities, including all equipment, structures, machinery, and tangible and intangible property, real and personal, for the joint generation or transmission of electrical energy, or both, including any fuel supply or source useful for such a project. See Florida Statutes 361.11
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• registered mail: include certified mail with return receipt requested. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Registered nurse: means any person licensed in this state or holding an active multistate license under…. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Required passage rate: means the graduate passage rate required for an approved program pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 464.003
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Telecommunications company: includes every corporation, partnership, and person and their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever, and every political subdivision in the state, offering two-way telecommunications service to the public for hire within this state by the use of a telecommunications facility. See Florida Statutes 364.02
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01