Registered Nurses Scope of Practice in Australia

RUNNING HEAD: RN SCOPE OF PRACTICE 1
Registered nurses scope of practice in Australia
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RN SCOPE OF PRACTICE 2
Registered nurses’ scope of practice
According to Birks, Davis, Smithson, & Cant, (2016), the Australian healthcare is
coupled with various emergent challenges such increased costs of care and medicines, the
increasing consumer demand and expectations, change in patterns of disease and epidemiological
burden are just some of the few challenges. The nursing profession is usually considered as one
of the solutions to the emerging problems. The nurses’ ability to respond to these challenges is
however limited due to the regulation surrounding the practice whose scope is not well
understood. This paper focuses on nurses’ scope of practice in the Australian healthcare system.
Based on my clinical and placement experience, I have come to learn that the scope of
nursing of the registered nurse in Australia is not defined by the challenges or the consumer
expectations but by the professional standards of practice. To a greater extent, the scope of
practice is also guided by the professional code of ethics and professional values argues Scanlon,
Cashin, Bryce, Kelly, & Buckely, (2016). In addition, Halcomb, Stephens, Bryce, Foley, &
Ashley, (2017) adds that the scope of nursing practice extends to cover a standard set of skills.
These skills include administration and monitoring medications, insertion and removal of IV
lines and intraurethral catheters, assessment and management of patients and developing
individualized plan of care for patients. Nurses also record vital signs as part of their routine
carefully checking for any present abnormalities, documentation, admission and discharge of
patients, patient transfer, support and safety. It is important to consider the fact that registered
nurses rarely diagnose or recommend medicines but sometimes they are empowered to do so for
only a limited number of conditions to deal with workforce shortages in the healthcare sector
(McKenna, Halcomb, Lane, Zwar, & Russell, 2015).

RN SCOPE OF PRACTICE 3
According to Kelly, Berragan, Husebø, & Orr, (2016), the registered nurse standards of
practice, the nurses’ roles and responsibilities have been summarized and grouped in 7 major
categories. These professional standards are the thresholds that nurses are expected to meet in
their profession. These includes thinking critically and analyzing practice, engaging in healthy
therapeutic and professional relationships with patients and staff, maintaining competence and
practice capability, conducting assessments comprehensively, developing plans of care for
patients, improving safety and quality of care in health and evaluation of nursing outcomes to
inform nursing practice argues Xue, Ye, Brewer, & Spetz, (2016). It is therefore quite clear that
nurses play a vital role in healthcare which is not only limited to attending patients but also to
leadership and continuous quality improvement.
Nurses are also governed by a professional code of ethics and values that further
highlight their scope of practice. The nurses’ professional ethics and values guides the conduct of
nurses towards a more acceptable and predictable behavioral pattern argues McInnes, Peters,
Bonney, & Halcomb, (2017). The registered nurse code of ethics in Australia focuses on
respecting patients’ rights and according quality care to all people, value for kindness and
showing respect towards oneself and other people as well, respect of diversity, access to quality,
informed and competency decision making, safety in care, ethical management of information
and creation of a sustainable environment conducive for practice (McInnes, Peters, Bonney, &
Halcomb, 2015).
As a nurse, I have also come to learn of the importance of personal values such as
empathy, compassion, kindness and fear of God. These are values that teach people to be good to
others by the virtue of being humans and to show no partiality, discrimination or ill will.
Personal values help to strengthen the professional ethics and values of care such as increased