As nurses we have many questions about what scope of practice means…how expansive it is…and how our scope changes…or does it?
Kathy Doerksen and I had the privilege of being at the Victoria General Hospital earlier this week for Coffee and Conversation sessions. Upwards of 20 nurses came together to speak with us and scope of practice was a key topic of conversation. Scope and competence is determined by our knowledge, by our skills and by our judgment. Nurses hold a critical role in the care of Manitobans; it is imperative that we practice at our full scope of practice. We often find it difficult to define our scope of practice; however, that is exactly what we have been challenged by government to do as we prepare for proclamation of the new Regulated Health Professions Act.
A second critical piece of preparing for the new legislation is clarification of “reserved acts”; these are acts that are to be done only by regulated professionals as they carry an element of risk. We are also asking for your feedback on this list as well. Again, I really need to hear from you in order that we get invaluable feedback from nurses all over the province. Each of you owns this work and we are not able to do this well without you. Thanks for your input.
We heard from the nurses at VGH and now we are eager to hear from you through this blog and through the scope of practice survey available here on the website. We have tried to make the survey self explanatory and we really need to hear from you. I look forward to reading your responses on the blog and through the survey.
