WHY ARE THERE LAWS REGULATING NURSING?
The practice of nursing requires specialized knowledge, skill, and independent decision making. Nursing careers take widely divergent paths - practice focus varies by setting, by type of client, by different disease, therapeutic approach or level of rehabilitation. Moreover, nurses are mobile and sophisticated and work in a society that is changing and asymmetrical for consumers. The result is that the risk of harm is inherent in the provision of nursing care.
Because nursing care poses a risk of harm to the public if practiced by professionals who are unprepared or incompetent, the state, through its police powers, is required to protect its citizens from harm. That protection is in the form of reasonable laws to regulate nursing.
WHAT ARE THE LAWS RELATED TO NURSING?
More than 100 years ago, state governments enacted laws which protect the public’s health and welfare by overseeing and ensuring the safe practice of nursing.
All states and territories have enacted a nurse practice act (NPA). Each state’s NPA is enacted by the state’s legislature. 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. Once enacted, rules and regulations have the full force and effect of law.
Although the specificity of NPAs varies among states, all NPAs include:
Authority, power and composition of a board of nursing
Education program standards
Standards and scope of nursing practice
Types of titles and licenses
Requirements for licensure
Grounds for disciplinary action, other violations and possible remedies
WHY DOES A NURSE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE NPA?
The practice of nursing is a right granted by a state to protect those who need nursing care. The guidelines of the NPA and its rules provide safe parameters within which to work, as well as protect patients from unprofessional and unsafe nursing practice. The act is a dynamic document that evolves and is updated or amended as changes in scope of practice occur.
The laws of the nursing profession can only function properly if nurses know the current laws governing practice in their state. Ignorance of the law is never an excuse!
