Nursing Practice

Nursing practice has been transformed from a basic healing and caring concept to a multiple facets of systematic health care collections in an imperative need of rapid changing society over the last century. In order to ensure safe practice of nursing, regulation and supervision by legislations serves its purpose. Nurses could obtain nursing regulation information through numerous sources.
“National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) is an independent, not-for-profit organization through which boards of nursing act and counsel together on matters of common interest and concern affecting public health, safety and welfare, including the development of nursing licensure examinations” (NCSBN, 2015). In addition, American Nurses Association (ANA) recognizes the authority and responsibility of boards of nursing to investigate complaints, hold hearings and render findings on issues concerning nurse licensure (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2012).
According to NCSBN (2015), all states and territories have enacted a nurse practice act (NPA). Each state’s NPA is enacted by the
It changes dynamically and involves in amendment when scope of practice updates occur. As nurses, it’s our obligations to know, understand and obey the current NPA in our state of practice as well as our local hospital, clinic, or agency’s regulations and policies. However, it’s essential to identify and report any unsafe nursing behaviors to the board of nursing to protect the vulnerable public who may not have sufficient information. For example, “from 2009 to 2011, ANA publicly supported two Winkler County, Texas hospital nurses who reported their concerns about unsafe practices of a physician to the Texas Medical Board. As a result of their whistleblower actions, the “Winkler County nurses” were criminally investigated and prosecuted by county officials” (ANA,