Rachel Miley
Nursing Roles 1
Nursing Practice Act
July 2015

Nursing practice is to do or perform habitually or customarily, make a habit of. (Mosby) But it is also the performance that requires specialized education, knowledge, and judgment of a trained person. This trained individual can be a licensed practical nurse, a registered nurse, a bachelor’s degree nurse, a master’s degree nurse, or a nurse practitioner. But all nurses must be able to observe, assess, and act on what your findings are. The goal of a nurse is to take care of patients to the best of their training and ability. Their ability will be defined in the term scope of practice. Scope of practice is defined as the extent and limits of the medical intervention that a health care provider may perform. (Farlex) Or in other words, staying within the professional nursing knowledge and not practicing above or below your scope of practice. A registered nurse, like everybody else, have responsibilities that come with the job. But they do differ in precise qualifications. A nurse must be able to assess, formulate, plan, implement, initiate, and evaluate nursing actions that are necessary in the field of nursing. They must be able to accept responsibility for their own actions and work well with others in a team setting. Communication is a key factor in nursing. Coworkers, patients, patient’s families, doctors, therapists, and emergency response teams are all the people that should be communicating with. Respect and maintaining the patient’s right to privacy is of a very big importance. Every patient has rights. It is the nurses and staff members’ responsibility to follow it. The nurse can also delegate certain tasks to qualified caregivers that are in their scope of practice. Lastly, the nurse must evaluate the effect of the nursing care that is provided to the patient to determine if it is effective