Standards Of Practice: The Scope Of Nursing Practice

The American Nurses Association (ANA) sets forth scope and standards of practice to facilitate the social contract between society and the nursing profession as a whole. The Scope of Nursing Practice describes the “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” “why,” and “how,” the duties, of nursing practice (American Nurses Association, 2015, p. 2). The nursing profession is continuously evolving and develops on past works. In response, the ANA revises and updates the standards every five years. They are important because professional nursing practice regulation is based on these standards, the code of ethics, and specialty certifications. The 2010 and 2015 Scope and standards editions are important as they have variations speaking to competencies,

Some of the standards have been reordered. Standard 14. Quality of Practice is Standard 10. Quality of Practice in the 2010 edition, for example. The next alteration is significant. To address the growing awareness of cultural sensitivity a standard addressing an increase of culturally and ethnically diverse consumers, Standard 8, was created. “Standard 8. Culturally Congruent Practice. The registered nurse practices in a manner that is congruent with cultural diversity and inclusion principles” (American Nurses Association, 2015, p.69). The new standard allows for culturally congruent nursing care. While standard 8 provides a focus and foundation for cultural relationships, direction may be found throughout many of the competencies. “Standard 9. Communication, Competencies, The registered Nurse: Demonstrates cultural empathy when communicating.” for

That is the rising number of negligent acts committed by medical professionals. Failure to follow standard of practice is the leading root cause of the troubles involving malpractice. Failure to assess and monitor the patient, failure to communicate, medication errors, negligent delegation or supervision and failure to obtain informed consent from patients are the top failures leading to malpractice. The American Nurses Association provides scopes and standards that if followed could prevent many of the negligent acts. Duty, Breach of Duty, Foreseeability, Causation, Injury, Damages must be proven for a nurse to be held