Final sign-offs are close for both a new registered nurse scope of practice and the profession’s new process for endorsing specialty standards.
In the wake of February’s national consensus workshop, Nursing Council chief executive Carolyn Reed said the council was “almost there but not quite” in signing off an RN scope with more flexibility to respond to workforce needs.
In a related but separate process, the four professional nursing organisations are close to signing off terms of reference for the consortium process for professionally endorsing standards for special practice areas such as nurse colposcopy. A discussion document has been sent out for consultation outlining the consortium terms of reference, with a potential ‘checklist’ for standards and frameworks seeking national endorsement.
Reed said following the consensus meeting that the council was heartened nursing was “marching to the same drum beat” of public safety, but the council still needed further reassurance on how the consortium would work and whether all major nursing groups supported the proposed standards-approving body.
Susanne Trim, professional services manager for consortium member NZNO, says the consortium’s terms of reference has been sent to the boards of the four member organisations for sign-off, which would bring the consortium formally into existence. (The other members are the College of Nurses Aotearoa, National Council of Māori Nurses and the NZ College of Mental Health Nurses.)
Also, a consultation document on how the consortium would work has been sent out to sector representatives, with feedback closing in late May. The document says the consortium’s aim is for the nursing profession to retain authority over specialty standards by setting up a single mechanism for nationally endorsing specialty standards. It includes some principles on how to decide whether a clinical practice area is a stand-alone specialty; and the requirements to get endorsement of specialty standards, including the backing of a national group, evidence of wide national consultation and being based on current evidence.
College of Mental Health Nurses president Heather Casey says it has been important for the professional organisations to examine how they work together endorsing standards before going out to the wider sector. College of Nurses executive director Jenny Carryer says she is feeling very positive about the process and commended Trim on her skills in bringing what was a complex process together.
Trim says NZNO is also inviting the Nursing Council to attend an upcoming meeting to test another consortium project, a decision making framework with a step by step process to decide whether a new area of nursing practice, for example nurse colposcopy, requires a credentialing process or Nursing Council authorisation.
Meanwhile, the finalised consensus statement from the 50 nursing leaders who attended February’s workshop has been sent to the Nursing Council. It confirms that leaders believe the existing scopes are sufficiently enabling and the RN scope should remain flexible to meet the needs of contemporary nursing practice.
Reed says the council’s approach is consistent with what the consensus workshop was seeking. “It has been an incredibly rewarding process to work with nurses right across the board to reach that common goal.”
She says the Nursing Council is looking to make the RN scope more flexible to meeting changing workforce needs, but to do this it needs to be careful that the standards approval system set up by the profession is a rigorous one and it protects the public. It is also important that individual nurses regulate their own practice. A decision on the new RN scope is likely to be made at the council’s June meeting.
