New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 13 - LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY › Chapter 44E - STATE BOARD OF CHIROPRACTIC EXAMINERS › Subchapter 2 - GENERAL RULES OF PRACTICE › Section 13:44E-2.3 - Sexual misconduct

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
(a) By this section, the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners is identifying for its licensees conduct that it shall deem to be violative of law.
(b) As used in this section, the following terms have the following meanings unless the context indicates otherwise:
1. "Licensee" means any person licensed to engage in the practice of chiropractic as regulated by the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
2. "Patient" means any person who is the recipient of a professional service rendered by a licensee for the purposes of diagnosis, care or a consultation relating to chiropractic care. "Patient" for purposes of this section also means a person who is the subject of professional examination even if the purpose of that examination is unrelated to care.
3. "Patient-chiropractor relationship" means an association between a chiropractor and patient wherein the licensee owes a continuing duty to the patient to be available to render professional services consistent with his or her chiropractic training and experience. The performance of any professional chiropractic service includes, but is not limited to, any consultation, examination, and care provided by a licensee in furtherance of chiropractic care or consultation.
4. "Sexual contact" means the knowing touching of a person's body directly or through clothing, where the circumstances surrounding the touching would be construed by a reasonable person to be motivated by the licensee's own prurient interest or for sexual arousal or gratification. "Sexual contact" includes, but is not limited to, the imposition of a part of the licensee's body upon a part of the patient's body, sexual penetration, or the insertion or imposition of any object or any part of a licensee or patient's body into or near the genital, anal or other opening of the other person's body. "Sexual contact" does not include the touching of a patient's body which is necessary during the performance of a generally accepted and recognized chiropractic technique.
5. "Sexual harassment" means solicitation of any sexual act, physical advances, or verbal or nonverbal conduct that is sexual in nature, and which occurs in connection with a licensee's activities or role as a provider of chiropractic services, and that either: is unwelcome, offensive to a reasonable person, or creates a hostile workplace environment, and the licensee knows, should know, or is told this; or is sufficiently severe or intense to be abusive to a reasonable person in that context. "Sexual harassment" may consist of a single extreme or severe act or of multiple acts and may include, but is not limited to, conduct of a licensee with a patient, co-worker, employee, student or supervisee whether or not such individual is in a subordinate position to the licensee.
6. "Spouse" means the husband, wife or fiancee of the licensee or an individual involved in a long-term committed relationship with the licensee.
i. For purposes of this section, a long-term committed relationship means a relationship which is at least six months in duration.