Nursing Practice Standards
Nursing practice standards are guidelines and criteria established by professional nursing organizations to ensures that nurses provide safe, competent, and ethical care to patients. These standards serve as a framework for nursing practice and are designed to promote consistency, quality, and accountability in healthcare delivery.
These standards are typically established and updated by nursing regulatory bodies, professional organizations, and accrediting agencies to ensure that nurses provide high-quality and safe care within the evolving healthcare landscape. Nurses are expected to familiarize themselves with these standards and incorporate them into their daily practice.
Regulatory
Like many professions nursing practice is regulated at the state level. The Minnesota Board of Nursing is charged with licensing nurses and nursing education programs, implementing state statutes and rules, often referred to as the Nurse Practice Act, and when needed disciplining unsafe nursing practice, all to protect the public.
Every licensed nurse whether a Registered Nurse (RN), Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) or an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) has a defined scope of practice. Scope of practice means a defined set of nursing activities that the nurse is permitted to perform and is based on appropriate education, training, and experience. There are some similarities in nursing activities but distinct differences which means an LPN cannot replace a RN or even an Unlicensed Assistive Personnel (UAP) can’t replace a licensed nurse.
Schools may offer nurses employment for positions where the job description is not in alignment with the nurse’s licensure such as hiring a nurse with a UAP job description. In cases like this, it is difficult for the nurse to separate her nursing knowledge and expertise to function within the employer’s job description and within the Nurse Practice Act.
The Minnesota Board of Nursing has developed a RN and LPN Scope of Practice Chart (PDF) which compares RN and LPN nursing activities. All nurses have the responsibility to be self-informed and understand the scope of practice.
The Scope of Nursing Practice Decision-Making Framework is intended to be used by nurses, organizations that employee nurses, boards of nursing and other stakeholders in determining whether specific activities, interventions, or roles are permitted under the nurse’s level of education, licensure, and competence while meeting the standards established by the nurse practice act and rules/regulations of each state or jurisdiction.
Information and questions about licensure, scope of practice, verifying a current license, license violations / complaints can be found on the Minnesota Board of Nursing website.
Professional
Professional Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice are used in conjunction with regulatory requirements to define professional nursing practice (RN). The Minnesota Nurse Practice Act MN Statute 148.171 Subd. 15 Practice of professional nursing states, the "practice of professional nursing" means the performance, with or without compensation, of those services that incorporates caring for all patients in all settings through nursing standards recognized by the board…”
The American Nurses Association (ANA) developed the Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice, 4th Edition (2021) for the practice of professional nursing (RN) in the United States. The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) which is the professional nursing organization for the specialty practice of school nursing, with the approval of ANA developed the School Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice, 4th Edition (2022). Both standards are also extrinsically linked to the “Nursing Code of Ethics" for nursing practice.
The scope of practice standards answers the who, what, when, where, how, and why questions for nursing practice and provide authoritative statements of the actions and behaviors that all registered nurses are expected to competently perform, regardless of role, population, specialty, and setting. It is clear, that nurses must follow standards even in a non-traditional health care setting such as the educational setting.
It is the responsibility for every nurse to know, understand, utilize and be accountable to these practice standards both professionally and through regulation.
The school nursing standards are comprised of 6 standards of school nursing practice and 14 standards for professional performance. Each of the 18 standards includes a description followed by the competencies that the individual professional nurse (RN) is held accountable too. The NASN Code of Ethics for school nurses includes 9 provisions which establishes the ethical foundation for school nursing practice.