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.
Tags: Dialogue, Scope of Practice
Hi Helga:
I am interested by the survey results noting that 67.3% of respondents believe they are currently practicing to full scope.For discussion purposes I am wondering if some articles like “Strengthening Client Centred Care in Hospitals” from RNAO and the CARNA document on ” Scope of practice” that reinforces a primary health care model would be helpful in stimulating conversations about how scope of practice could look different.
In many of our current environments we are task focused so we need other examples of RN scope of practice to get us thinking broadly.
Eileen, thank you for your comments; the articles you cite are great sources for enabling the discussion regarding scope of practice.
As Kathy and I have gone about the province on Kathy’s Coffee and Conversations, we have spoken with nurses in diverse clinical settings from remote nursing stations to small rural hospitals; from health clinics in rural Manitoba to tertiary settings. It is fascinating to be reminded that while many of these nurses’ have unique individual scopes of practice, their practice has adapted to meet the needs of the public they serve.
We look forward to continued discussion regarding scope of practice; there are huge opportunities for nurses to claim what is nursing!!!!!!!!!!!!
Helga
I think the discussion about scope of practice could assist the College with educating the public including governments in Canada with some clarity with what how Registered Nurses can participate in promoting, maintaining and developing the health of individuals, families and communities not only at a local or provincial level but also at a national and international levels as we are living in a global community.
The scope of practice of Registered Nurses varies greatly dependent on the lived experience of Registered Nurses, areas of interest, areas of current and past nursing practice and varing degrees of education thus listing scope of practice of Registered Nurses is not the same for every Registered Nurse. The competencies provide some insight into the scope of practice of Registed Nurses but it may not be limited to these competencies. Thus I feel the regulatory and professional body representing registered nurses in Manitoba needs to be cautious in the wording of this document to ensure that it provides the public with some insight into what registrered nurses can do but at the same time it is not used in legistlation to limit our scope of practic as Registered Nurses.
I understand the complexity that faces the CRNM Board of Directors in the creation of this document. I am wondering what the purpose of this document is for registered nurses in Manitoba and the purpose of this document to the Mantioba Department of Health? What was the factor that initiated the return to this topic. The scope of practice has been a repetitive discussion of the CRNM Board over the years, I know we discussed it in the early ninties.
Look forward to your comments and response to my questions.
Sincerly Tracey Fallak
Tracey, thank you for your comments; generating dialogue like this on the blog is very encouraging. Please allow me to respond to the comments and questions you have raised.
Ensuring the public is aware of the role of registered nurses is certainly one aspect of the scope of practice work at this time. We are planning on mounting a public awareness campaign on the scope of practice and the consultation that we are currently undertaking will be very helpful in that regard. The practice of registered nurses goes much further and deeper than the conducting of tasks; our goal is to ensure the public sees, through the campaign, the knowledge and judgment that nurses apply to the care of their patients/clients every day.
The current revisiting of scope has been prompted as we prepare for the new Regulated Health Professions Act which will be proclaimed within the next year. That Act will replace our current Registered Nurses Act and will govern registerend nurses as well as 21 other regulated health professions. As we prepare for this legislation, we had the opportunity to review our scope of practice definition and have done so through a broad consultative process that has included nurses, teams of nurses such as Nursing Practice Councils, educators of nurses as well as other health regulatory bodies and the public.
As Kathy and I have toured the province over the past several months, we have been so impressed in terms of the diversity of scopes of practice; the College has the mandate to set the scope of practice and that needs to be broad enought to encompass the practice of all nurses in all settings and in all domains. Every nurse needs to be able to “see their practice” within that broad, enabling definition. Scope is an evolutionary concept and as knowledge increases so do expectations of the public; nursing will always seek to expand our influence on the health of Manitobans and on the effectiveness of the system to support health care.
This document will provide the definition of registered nursing practice and guide our profession into the future. We believe that access to health care and improved overall health can be achieved through nurses understanding their scope, their role and the impact they can have on the system.
Helga Bryant