Foundation of Nursing Practice PDF

Foundation of Nursing Practice **Introduction** Nursing is an art and a science. As a professional nurse you will learn to deliver care artfully with compassion, caring, and respect for each patient's dignity and personhood. As a science, nursing practice is based on a body of knowledge that is co...

Foundation of Nursing Practice **Introduction** Nursing is an art and a science. As a professional nurse you will learn to deliver care artfully with compassion, caring, and respect for each patient's dignity and personhood. As a science, nursing practice is based on a body of knowledge that is continually changing with new discoveries and innovations. **Definition of nursing** Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities; prevention of illness and injury; alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human responses; and advocacy in health care for individuals, families, communities, and populations. **(ANA, 2018).**This definition serves as the foundation for the following expanded descriptions of the Scope of Nursing Practice and the Standards of Professional Nursing Practice. **Nursing** is a learned profession built on a core body of knowledge that reflects its dual components of art and science. Nursing requires judgment and skill based on principles of the biological, physical, behavioral, and social sciences. **Definition of a Nurse.** The nurse is a person who has completed a program of basic, generalized nursing education and is authorized by the appropriate regulatory authority to practice nursing in his/her country. **Aim of nursing:** Four broad aims of nursing practice can be identified in the definitions of nursing: 1\. To promote health 2\. To prevent illness 3\. To restore health 4\. To facilitate coping with disability or death - To meet these aims, the nurse uses knowledge, skills, and critical thinking to give care in a variety of traditional and expanding nursing roles. **The nursing profession and its characteristics:** A variety of career opportunities are available in nursing, including clinical practice, education, research, management, administration, and even entrepreneurship. As a student it is important for you to understand the scope of professional nursing practice and how nursing influences the lives of your patients, their families, and their communities. The patient is the center of your practice. **Professional Nursing's Scope and Standards of Practice** A professional organization has a responsibility to its members and to the public it serves to develop the scope and standards of practice for its profession. The American Nurses Association (ANA), the professional organization for all registered nurses, has long assumed the responsibility for developing and maintaining the scope of practice statement and standards that apply to the practice of all professional nurses and also serve as a template for evaluation of nursing specialty practice. Both the scope and standards do, however, belong to the profession and thus require broad input into their development and revision. Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, Third Edition describes a competent level of nursing practice and professional performance common to all registered nurses.  **Scope of practice** is defined as services that a trained health professional is deemed competent to perform and permitted to undertake according to the terms of their professional nursing license **(,2015)**. **Nursing scope of practice** provides a framework and structured guidance for activities one can perform based on their nursing license.As a nurse and a nursing student, is always important to consider: Just because your employer asks you to do a task...can you perform this task according to your scope of practice -- or are you putting your nursing license at risk? **Tenets Characteristic of Nursing Practice** The conduct of nursing practice in all settings can be characterized by the following tenets that are reflected in language that threads throughout the scope of practice statement and standards of practice and professional performance**.( ANA, 2018)** 1. *Caring and health are central to the practice of the registered nurse.* 2. *Nursing practice is individualized.* **Healthcare consumer** is defined to be the patient, person, client, family, group, community, or population who is the focus of attention and to whom the registered nurse is providing services as sanctioned by the state regulatory bodies 3. *Registered nurses use the nursing process to plan and provide individualized care for healthcare consumers.* Nurses use theoretical and evidence-based knowledge of human experiences and responses to collaborate with healthcare consumers to assess, diagnose, identify outcomes, plan, implement, and evaluate care that has been individualized to achieve the best outcomes. **Registered nurses** (RNs) are individuals who are educationally prepared and licensed by a state, commonwealth, territory, government, or regulatory body to practice as a registered nurse. 4. *Nurses coordinate care by establishing partnerships.* The registered nurse establishes partnerships with persons, families, groups, support systems, and other providers, utilizing effective in-person and electronic communications, to reach a shared goal of delivering safe, quality health care to address the health needs of the healthcare consumer and the public. 5. *A strong link exists between the professional work environment and the registered nurse's ability to provide quality health care and achieve optimal outcomes.* Professional nurses have an ethical obligation to maintain and improve healthcare practice environments conducive to the provision of quality health care. Extensive studies have demonstrated the relationship between effective nursing practice and the presence of a healthy work environment. Mounting evidence demonstrates that negative, demoralizing, and unsafe conditions in the workplace (unhealthy work environments) contribute to errors, ineffective delivery of care, workplace conflict and stress, and moral distress. ***The Standards of Professional Nursing Practice*** consist of the Standards of Practice and the Standards of Professional Performance. Standards of Practice The Standards of Practice describe a competent level of nursing care as demonstrated by the critical thinking model known as the nursing process. **[Standard 1. Assessment]** The registered nurse collects pertinent data and information relative to the healthcare consumer's health or the situation. **[Standard 2. Diagnosis]** The registered nurse analyzes the assessment data to determine actual or potential diagnoses, problems, and issues. **[Standard 3. Outcomes Identification]** The registered nurse identifies expected outcomes for a plan individualized to the healthcare consumer or the situation. **[Standard 4. Planning]** The registered nurse develops a plan that prescribes strategies to attain expected, measurable outcomes. **[Standard 5. Implementation]** The registered nurse implements the identified plan. **[Standard 5A. Coordination of Care]** The registered nurse coordinates care delivery. **[Standard 5B. Health Teaching and Health Promotion]** The registered nurse employs strategies to promote health and a safe environment. The Standards of Professional Performance It describe a competent level of behavior in the professional role, including activities related to ethics, culturally congruent practice, communication, collaboration, leadership, education, evidence-based practice and research, quality of practice, professional practice evaluation, resource utilization, and environmental health. All registered nurses are expected to engage in professional role activities, including leadership, appropriate to their education and position. Registered nurses are accountable for their professional actions to themselves, their healthcare consumers, their peers, and ultimately to society. **[Standard 7. Ethics]** The registered nurse practices ethically. **[Standard 8. Culturally Congruent Practice]** The registered nurse practices in a manner that is congruent with cultural diversity and inclusion principles. **[Standard 9. Communication]** The registered nurse communicates effectively in all areas of practice. **[Standard 10. Collaboration]** The registered nurse collaborates with healthcare consumer and other key stakeholders in the conduct of nursing practice. **[Standard 11. Leadership]** The registered nurse leads within the professional practice setting and the profession. **[Standard 12. Education]** The registered nurse seeks knowledge and competence that reflects current nursing practice and promotes futuristic thinking. **[Standard 13. Evidence-based Practice and Research]** The registered nurse integrates evidence and research findings into practice. **[Standard 14. Quality of Practice]** The registered nurse contributes to quality nursing practice. **[Standard 15. Professional Practice Evaluation]** The registered nurse evaluates one's own and others' nursing practice. **[Standard 16. Resource Utilization]** The registered nurse utilizes appropriate resources to plan, provide, and sustain evidence-based nursing services that are safe, effective, and fiscally responsible. **[Standard 17. Environmental Health]** The registered nurse practices in an environmentally safe and healthy manner. The role of the nurse and its functions Nurses provide care and comfort for patients in all health care settings and concern for meeting their patient's needs. These roles are described as the following: - **1- Direct care provider/ caregiver:** As a caregiver, the nurse integrates the roles of communicator, teacher, counselor, leader, researcher, advocate, and collaborator to meet physical, emotional, intellectual, sociocultural, and spiritual needs for all patients. **2- Communicator:** The use of effective interpersonal and therapeutic communication skills to establish and maintain helping relationships with patients of all ages in a wide variety of healthcare settings. **3- Teacher/Educator:** The use of communication skills to assess, implement, and evaluate individualized teaching plans to meet learning needs of patients and their families. **4- Counselor:** The use of therapeutic interpersonal communication skills to provide information, make appropriate referrals, and facilitate the patient's problem-solving and decision-making skills. **5- Leader**: The assertive, self-confident practice of nursing when providing care, effecting change, and functioning with groups. **6- Researcher:** The participation in or conduct of research to increase knowledge in nursing and improve patient care. **7- Advocate:** The protection of human or legal rights and the securing of care for all patients based on the belief that patients have the right to make informed decisions about their own health and lives. **8-Collaborator:** The effective use of skills in organization, communication, and advocacy to facilitate the functions of all members of the healthcare team as they provide patient care.