Nurse Practice Act Research Paper

I strongly feel that nursing is controlled by many different divisions, such as policy, politics, organizations, and practice. Nursing careers take widely divergent paths and nursing practice focus varies by setting, by type of client, by different disease, therapeutic approach or level of rehabilitation. More than hundreds years ago, state governments enacted laws which protect the public’s health and welfare by overseeing and ensuring the safe practice of nursing("Nurse Practice Act, Rules & Regulations," n.d.). All of the states in the United States of America have enacted a nurse practice act. Each state’s nurse practice act is enacted by the state’s legislature and they each have a variance to them. The nursing practice act itself is insufficient
to provide the necessary guidance for the nursing profession alone, therefore, each nursing practice act establishes a board of nursing 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 nursing practice act and cannot go beyond it ("Nurse Practice Act, Rules & Regulations," n.d.). However, I do not believe nursing is controlled by upper divisions alone. Each health system has its own policies and procedures to help govern its own rules and regulations to the nursing field and this helps keep a flow of daily process within the organization. I believe the most important division is controlled is by the nurse themselves. It is the utmost importance to know policy, politics, and ones own organization, but true control comes within the nurse themselves. The nurse is a vital component within healthcare and patient care.
Reference:
Nurse Practice Act, Rules & Regulations. (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2017, from https://www.ncsbn.org/nurse-practice-act.htm