Scope Of Practice
The Scope of practice is influenced by many factors.
The scope of practice of a registered nurse is dependent on their education, experience and role. Nurses are determined to protect the health of ourselves and others through education, care, and cooperation with other experts.
Scopes of practice are the same for every nurse at a basic level. However it will be very different by specialty level, for examples, Pediatrics, ICU, OR, ER, Telemetry, etc.
I would say, if we have a question about something, find answer for the question. If we are uncomfortable with something we planned to do, maybe that is not in our scope of practice.
It is always better to hesitate, ask ourself these questions and check with someone else before we commit
to our patient and ourself to a course of action we shouldn't be on. Stepping out of our scope of practice can be a legal issue and endanger that license as well.
Before doing any task, it is worth to finding out Did I learn this skill or task in my basic nursing program.
Is the skill/task in your hospital's/clinic's/agencies' policy and procedure manual?
Does this skill/task pass the "reasonable and prudent" standard of nursing?
Did I learn this skill/task as part of a comprehensive training program which included clinical experience?
Has this task become so commonplace in nursing literature and in nursing practice (wound debridement and dressing, for example) that it can reasonably and prudently be assumed within scope?
I have been trying to get back into the clinical setting after being out for 9 years to raise my children .I took RN refreshment course from wake AHEC. We need to complete 160 hrs. in clinical practice under RN supervision. During that time RN refresher was not supposed to administer narcotic medication to the patient or to double check patient identification and verify blood administration.
The scope of practice of a registered nurse is dependent on their education, experience and role. Nurses are determined to protect the health of ourselves and others through education, care, and cooperation with other experts.
Scopes of practice are the same for every nurse at a basic level. However it will be very different by specialty level, for examples, Pediatrics, ICU, OR, ER, Telemetry, etc.
I would say, if we have a question about something, find answer for the question. If we are uncomfortable with something we planned to do, maybe that is not in our scope of practice.
It is always better to hesitate, ask ourself these questions and check with someone else before we commit
to our patient and ourself to a course of action we shouldn't be on. Stepping out of our scope of practice can be a legal issue and endanger that license as well.
Before doing any task, it is worth to finding out Did I learn this skill or task in my basic nursing program.
Is the skill/task in your hospital's/clinic's/agencies' policy and procedure manual?
Does this skill/task pass the "reasonable and prudent" standard of nursing?
Did I learn this skill/task as part of a comprehensive training program which included clinical experience?
Has this task become so commonplace in nursing literature and in nursing practice (wound debridement and dressing, for example) that it can reasonably and prudently be assumed within scope?
I have been trying to get back into the clinical setting after being out for 9 years to raise my children .I took RN refreshment course from wake AHEC. We need to complete 160 hrs. in clinical practice under RN supervision. During that time RN refresher was not supposed to administer narcotic medication to the patient or to double check patient identification and verify blood administration.