Enerolisa Paredes

NUR 300
Professor Wetsell
The Nurse Practice Act
The Nurse Practice Act (NPA) is an arrangement of laws that shield people in
general from damage. It characterizes the formal training required for a specific level of
medical attendant and sets the directions for licensure. The NPA characterizes the nurse
extent of practice in light of the knowledge of the formal training and level of medical
caretaker.
Nursing requires specialized knowledge, skill, and independent decision-making.
The practice of nursing involves behavior, attitude and judgment, and physical and
sensory capabilities in the application of knowledge, skills, and abilities for the benefit of
the client. Nursing careers take widely divergent pathspractice focus varies by setting, by
types of clients, by different disease, therapeutic approach or level of rehabilitation. Nurses
work at all points of service in the health care system (National Council of State Boards of
Nursing [NCSBN], 1996, p. 13).
Before the Industrial Revolution, people could evaluate the quality of services they
received. Many communities were small, and everybody knew everybody. Essential needs
were met for the most part by every family, and when individuals swung to others, they
knew the notorieties of the individuals who gave administrations. Around then, anybody
could call herself a nurse. However, as technology and knowledge advanced, a variety of
people and groups began to provide services (NCSBN, 1996, p. 5). Individuals were no
longer good arbiters of the quality of a provider or a service.
Because the United States Constitution does not include provisions to regulate the
practice of nursing, the responsibility falls to the states. Under a states police powers, it has
the authority to make laws to maintain public order, health, safety, and welfare (Guido,
2010, p. 34). In addition to the states need to protect the public, nursing leaders wanted to
legitimize the profession in the eyes of the public, limit the number of people who hired
out as nurses, raise the quality of professional nurses, and improve educational standards in
schools of nursing (Penn Nursing Science, 2012).
The laws of the nursing profession can only work if nurses know the present laws
governing the practice in their state.
All states and territories have enacted a nurse practice act (NPA). Each states NPA
is passed by the states legislature. But the NPA itself is insufficient to provide the
necessary guidance for the nursing profession. Therefore, each NPA establishes a board of
nursing (BON) that has the authority to develop administrative rules or regulations to
clarify or make the law more specific. Rules and regulations must be consistent with the
NPA and cannot go beyond it. These rules and regulations undergo a process of public
review before enactment (NCSBN, 2011a; Ridenour & Santa Anna, 2012, p. 504). Once
enacted, rules and regulations have the full force and effect of law.
Although the specificity of NPAs varies among states, all NPAs include:
definitions
authority, power, and composition of a BON
educational program standards

standards and scope of nursing practice

types of titles and licenses
protection of titles
requirements for licensure
grounds for disciplinary action, other violations, and possible remedies.

Scope of Practice
The Scope of Practice characterizes your part as a nurse for the region where you
are working. This can change starting with one state or area then onto the next. In the event
that you are a travel nurture, or are moving to another state, you have to peruse and
acclimate yourself with the NPA and Scope of Practice for that state or area before you start
working.
The laws of the nursing profession can just proceed appropriately if nurses know the
present laws governing practice in their state. You may not utilize the reason that you aren't
acquainted with your extent of practice as it is a piece of your part as a medical caretaker to
know and comprehend it. The NPA and extent of practice can be changed as instruction and
prerequisites change. Perused your NPA regularly and stay side by side of changes in your
state or area. Your state BON is an asset for the NPA. Connections to NPAs are accessible
on most state BON sites. Some BONs endeavor to give new data to nurses by means of
their site or newsletter (Tedford, 2011).
Observe that since you procure an arrangement of aptitudes or learning base for a
fact or perception over the span of your employment, it doesn't mean you may perform
them without specific constraints. Notwithstanding your NPA you additionally should be
acquainted with your present set of working responsibilities and the standards of your
office.
You are additionally capable not to exceed your extent of practice paying little heed
to what your boss may ask of you. This can be particularly essential in the event that you
don't work in a conventional human services setting. Indeed, even inside a medicinal
services setting, bosses are famous for requesting that attendants stretch past their extent of
practice to perform obligations that can be sketchy. Your obligation as a medical caretaker
is to secure the wellbeing of your patients.
Do not harm
New medical attendants specifically can regularly be threatened into performing aptitudes
that they have not performed some time recently, or not been verified on, in light of the fact
that the unit is short staffed and there isn't an ideal opportunity to discover a preceptor or
administrator to help you with the strategy. This is truly unsatisfactory and medical
attendants need to recall the main guideline of all human services, DO NO HARM. Try not
to perform something you have never managed without suitable supervision!

Finally, The act of nursing is a privilege allowed by a state to ensure the individuals
who need nursing care. The rules of the NPA and its guidelines give safe parameters inside
which to work and shield patients from amateurish and dangerous nursing practice (Brent,
2012, p. 5). Over 100 years prior, state governments set up BONs to secure the general's
wellbeing and welfare by regulating and guaranteeing the protected routine of nursing.

Today, BONs proceed with their obligation, yet the law can't work as a manual for activity
if nobody thinks about it. To maintain ones license in good standing and continue
practicing, nurses must understand that rights are always accompanied by responsibilities
(Brous, 2012, p. 506). Make you know your state's NPA and rules preceding you go into
that unprotected intersection of nursing care.