The Nurse Practice Act: An Overview
Sep 3rd, 2008 by mariceltpadua
The Nurse Practice Act consists of state laws that regulate the nursing profession in general. This is a set of statutes for the benefit of public safety to ensure that all nurses meet at least the minimum standards of performance. Though each state has its own specific set of laws, generally, it deals with common issues such as:
- Establishing the composition and scope of authority for the board of nursing
- Defining the practice of professional, practical or vocational nursing and advanced practice nursingØ Setting the requirements to obtain a nursing license
- Limiting use of the title, “nurse”
- Listing the grounds for discipline against a nurse’s license.
For all states to be uniform in their rules, a Model Nursing Practice Act was developed by the National Council of State Boards.The State Board of Nursing of each state takes the task of implementing and administering the Nursing Practice Act. This is the state governing body that is given the authority to implement the said law. It is then the nurse responsibility to be aware about their legal duty specified in the Act. There are regulations that apply to the healthcare profession that is not literally written in the Act. However, it is implied. Thus, all nurses must stay in compliance with them.
Examples of these common legal duties are:
- Confidentiality Requirements
- Mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse
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Infection Control
Multiple States Licenses
In general, a nurse needs to acquire a license to practice in the state of his or her employment or where they are practicing the profession. Upon given the license to practice, a nurse is mandated by law to abide to the state’s laws and regulations governing them.For the cases of travel nurses, they normally have multiple state licenses. Therefore, they need to follow the Nursing Act of each state they are licensed. If a travel nurse is disciplined in a state due to infringement occurred in that jurisdiction, it is possible that all other states may impose another discipline to the nurse as an additional disciplinary measure. In other words, multiple states may impose penalties to a travel nurse who had committed a single violation.
Lately, a number of states signed the Nurse Licensure Compact that allows a nurse to practice nursing in multiple states with a single license. If you want to know who among the states entered into this agreement, you may visit the website of the NCSB. Since the nurse is bounded to the Nursing Act of the state of employment, all complaints against the travel nurse is addressed by the state where the violation happened. However, his or her home state must also be informed about the violation.
Ignorance of the Nursing Practice Act is not an excuse. Thus, aside from being knowledgeable, as a nurse, you need to be aware of recent amendments of the law if there are any to avoid committing violations in the future.