Reflective Essay: Registered Nurses' Scope of Practice in Australia

This reflective essay delves into the scope of practice within nursing, with a specific focus on registered nurses in Australia and their efforts to meet the demands of the Australian healthcare system. It defines the scope of practice as a guiding theory for professions, outlining procedures, processes, and qualifications. The essay highlights the roles and responsibilities of registered nurses (RNs) and enrolled nurses (ENs) in Australia, emphasizing the importance of education and regulation. It also touches upon the historical changes in nursing education, the standards of practice, and the accountability of nurses to the Nursing board of Australia. The essay concludes by advocating for further improvements in nursing education to enhance the quality of services provided in the Australian healthcare sector. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Running head: THE SCOPE (RANGE) OF PRACTICE
1
Scope of Practice Within Nursing
Student’s Name
Intuitional Affiliation

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Scope of Practice Within Nursing
Introduction
In every field or profession, there requires a theory, mostly known as a scope of practice
that regulates the practices of individuals or firms. The theory gives directions on how
procedures, directions and action should be carried out. The theory also defines the qualification
for anyone to work in the given field or profession to ensure quality delivery of goods and
services in a given sector. A firm or a sector with proper planning and the management oversees
all its activities will always meet its goal. I think all sectors in the country should develop a well
defined scope of practice to ensure that the needs of all stakeholders are met.
This is a reflective essay that is describing the scope of practice within nursing and I will
concentrate on the registered nurses' scope of practice in Australia in its strive to meet the current
Australian health care demands.
Scope of Practice
According to Kelly, ‘Scope of practice’ is a theory that a variety of sectors use in their
professional to govern and control its practices (Kelly,2016). The scope of practice gives out
directions on the procedures, processes and actions that the licensed or registered professional
should follow in their activities. e.g. The ‘scope of practice’ in nursing defines and regulates how
nurses are supposed to handle the sick and the qualification for one to work as a registered nurse.
There are factors or standards that govern the’ range of practice’ which differ from one sector to

THE SCOPE (RANGE) OF PRACTICE 3
the other. The scope of practice has helped to control the professional in many fields where each
stakeholder is aware of what is expected of them. The ‘scope of practice’ helps those who are
new in the profession to learn what is expected of them and the extent of their operation in their
practice. A firm with the better scope of practice will always meet its objective as everybody in
the firm is aware of their responsibilities as it is evident in the scope of practice of nursing in our
country.
The range of Practice Within Nursing
The scope (range) of practice within nursing defines the activities that the qualified and
registered nurses are authorized and educated to perform. These activities vary from a range of
functions, roles and responsibility that a registered nurse is competent, educated and have
authority to perform. The range of practice within nursing is reinforced by the values that control
and guide the way nursing care is provided. The nursing range of practice describes the ‘what’
‘who’ ’when’ ’why’ ’how ‘and ‘where’ of nursing practice. The nursing scope of practice within
nursing allows only the registered nurses who have been educated and have active licensure to
exercise nursing procedures. Having educated and qualified nurses enable smooth operation of
hospital processes as the nurses working are professionals. The scope also defines the roles of the
nurses such as a giving prevention of injury and illness, facilitating of healing and giving first
aids and many other roles. Nurses who are aware of their responsibilities, will work according to
what we expect of them (McGilton et al,2016). The scope of practice will enable the nurses to

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work at the right time and when to carry certain duties. The scope also makes the nurses
understand the need and importance for the scope of practice in the nursing sector. I have visited
several hospitals in the country and for sure I can confess that many of our nurses are operating
per their range of practice in the manner they handle the sick.
Scope (Range) of Practice Within Nursing in Australia
Registered Nurses(RNs) and Enrolled Nurses(ENs) are the two levels of nurses in
Australia who are allowed and qualified to practice in the health sector (Birks, Davis, Smithson
and Cant, 2016). The RNs have to complete a 3- year studies in the university and attain a
bachelor degree in nursing while the ERs undergoes a 1-year vocational training program to
qualify. The ERs always operates under the instruction and the supervision of the RNs in the
country. Having the RNs nursing overseeing the activities of the ENs, will enable the enrolled
nurses to learn from the knowledge of the registered nurse (Scanlon et al,2016). The RNs and
ERs operate under control of state or territory authorities. The regulation of nurses in Australia is
controlled through the nurses’ registration boards and individual statutory authorities that are
under the supervision of state and territory government (Desborough et al,2016).
There have been significant changes in the sector of nursing in Australia. In the past years
the nurses operated under the supervision of other staff such as doctors. But by the early 1990s
all educational procedures that trained registered nurses for qualification into practice were
reassigned from the health care department to the higher education department. The transfer of

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basic nursing training to the higher education sector was intended to boost the professional rank
of nurses in Australia(Fisher,2017). It’s a good idea to transfer the nursing sector to the
education sector as it will enable the nurses to acquire the necessary skills from the university
(Cashin et al,2015).
The nurse in Australia have the standards for practice that governs them in terms of the
current Australian heath care demands. For the nurses to meet these demand they will have to
continue working on their profession and uphold their competence for professional practice and
understand what is expected of them (Cashin et al.,2015). The nurses will have to take to any
unpaid or paid roles where their nursing knowledge and skill are needed such as research
advisory and the roles that help in the effective delivery of services in the nursing sector. The
nurses in Australia are answerable and accountable to the Nursing board of Australia which has
set nationwide Registered and Enrolled nurses standards which guide the nurses in their strive to
meet Australian health care demands. These standards include: Thinking critically while
examines nursing practice, taking part in professional and therapeutic relationships, upholding
the competence for practice, broadly conducts assessments, design a program for nursing
practice, giving safe, right and responsive excellent nursing practice and assessing result to
inform nursing practice. Having studied the nurse standards of practice in Australia, I sure they
will guide the nurses in their day to day activities and they will meet the demand in the health
sector in Australia (Daly, Speedy, & Jackson,2017).

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Conclusion
The nursing sector in Australia is governed by the ‘ethics for practice’ that guide the
nurses in their practice. Having nursing undergoing higher education in the university has
enabled the nurse to deliver the quality of services in the hospitals.
I think the health sector should consider improving the nursing sectors’ delivery of
services by allowing the ERs to take more time in their training to gain more knowledge
concerning the nursing sector.

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References
Birks, M., Davis, J., Smithson, J., & Cant, R. (2016). Registered nurse scope of practice
in Australia: an integrative review of the literature. Contemporary Nurse, 52(5),
522-543.
Cashin, A., Buckley, T., Donoghue, J., Heartfield, M., Bryce, J., Cox, D., ... & Dunn, S.
V. (2015). Development of the nurse practitioner standards for practice
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Daly, J., Speedy, S., & Jackson, D. (2017). Contexts of nursing: An introduction. Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Desborough, J., Bagheri, N., Banfield, M., Mills, J., Phillips, C., & Korda, R. (2016). The
impact of general practice nursing care on patient satisfaction and enablement in
Australia: A mixed methods study. International journal of nursing studies, 64,
108-119.
Fisher, M. (2017). Professional standards for nursing practice: How do they shape
contemporary rehabilitation nursing practice?. Journal of the Australasian
Rehabilitation Nurses Association, 20(1), 4.
Kelly, M. A., Berragan, E., Husebø, S. E., & Orr, F. (2016). Simulation in nursing
education—International perspectives and contemporary scope of
practice. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(3), 312-321.
McGilton, K. S., Bowers, B. J., Heath, H., Shannon, K., Dellefield, M. E., Prentice, D., ...
& Boscart, V. M. (2016). Recommendations from the international consortium on
professional nursing practice in long-term care homes. Journal of the American
Medical Directors Association, 17(2), 99-103.

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Scanlon, A., Cashin, A., Bryce, J., Kelly, J. G., & Buckely, T. (2016). The complexities
of defining nurse practitioner scope of practice in the Australian
context. Collegian, 23(1), 129-142.