Professional Roles and Values
A) Functional Differences:
The functional differences between a regulatory agency, like the Texas Board of Nursing and a Professional Nursing Organization, like with Texas Nurses Association, are many. Even though both agencies support nursing, they do in different ways. The mission statement of the Texas Board of Nursing is as follows: “The mission of the Texas Board of Nursing is to protect and promote the welfare of the people of Texas by ensuring that each person holding a license as a nurse in the State of Texas is competent to practice safely” ("Mission and Values," n.d., para. 1). One of the primary roles of the BON is license issues. They issue and renew licenses for nurses in the State of Texas. They issue all licenses to graduates of approved nursing education programs. All nurses are required to renew their licenses on a biennial basis with evidence of required continuing education. In the State of Texas, RN’s must have twenty hours of CEU’s every two years for this renewal process. The BON enforces the NPA (Nurse Practice Act) and nursing education, conducting investigations of complaints against nurses and adjudicating complaints ("Licensure Renewal," n.d.). Texas Nurses Association (TNA) is a professional nursing organization with supports and advocates for nurses. The mission statement of the TNA is as follows: “Advancing the nursing profession through leadership, collaboration, advocacy and innovation” ("Mission," n.d., para. 1). The TNA was founded in 1907 in Fort Worth, Texas. Part of their services include, offer CE credits to nurses for license renewal, offer workshops. Another important factor is to promote workplace advocacy. The TNA gathers information from nurses around the state, regarding their practice environment. As a result of this advocacy, Texas now has one of the strongest NPA’s in the country