Our Unified Scope and Standards of Practice

Abstract

Spring is in the air! And in this season of renewal and growth, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) and the Society of Pediatric Nurses (SPN) are proud to be launching a new, unified Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice document for the benefit of children, the public, and all the nurses who care for them.For the past two years, I have been privileged to serve as NAPNAP’s Co-Chair for the Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice Writing Work Group. This project has been a unique, collaborative effort in which NAPNAP members joined with representatives of the American Nurses Association (ANA), SPN, and the SPN Co-Chair, Lynn Mohr. After many months of hard work, we are proud to see this endeavor now come to fruition with March 2008 as the scheduled release date.The primary purpose of a scope of practice statement is to protect the public and enhance consumers’ access to competent health care services. It also is incumbent upon a profession to define the scope and standards of practice within the profession and to ensure that scope of practice changes reflect the evolution of abilities within the particular health care discipline.Prior to our efforts, two pediatric “scope and standards” documents were available to practitioners, the nursing profession, legislators, regulators, accrediting bodies, and the public. The soon-to-be-released document is based on the ground-breaking work that was put forth in the original Scope and Standards of Pediatric Nursing Practice (American Nurses Association & Society of Pediatric Nurses 2003American Nurses Association & Society of Pediatric NursesScope and standards of pediatric nursing practice. Silver Spring, MD, American Nurses Association2003Google Scholar), the Scope and Standards of Practice: Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) (National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners 2004National Association of Pediatric Nurse PractitionersScope and standards of practice: Pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP). Author, Cherry Hill, NJ2004Google Scholar), and Nursing: Scope & Standards of Practice (American Nurses Association 2004American Nurses AssociationNursing: Scope and standards of practice. Author, Silver Spring, MD2004Google Scholar). By developing a unified document, NAPNAP and SPN seek to reduce confusion and create a new and improved set of standards that addresses all areas of pediatric nursing practice.In our writing, we also were guided by several assumptions recently described in the monograph Changes in Healthcare Professions’ Scope of Practice: Legislative Consideration (Association of Social Work Boards 2007Association of Social Work Boards, Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, Federation of State Medical Boards, National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc., & the National Association of Boards of PharmacyChanges in healthcare professions’ scope of practice: Legislative considerations.http://www.ncsbn.org/ScopeofPractice.pdfDate: 2007Google Scholar). This work, put forth by an interdisciplinary panel of health professional groups (including nursing, social work, medicine, pharmacy, and physical and occupational therapy), suggests the following: (a) public protection should have top priority in scope of practice decisions; (b) changes in scope of practice are inherent in our current health care system; (c) collaboration among health care providers should be the professional norm; and (d) overlap among professions is necessary. That is: no one profession owns a skill or activity in and of itself. Rather, it is the entire scope of activities within a practice that makes a particular profession unique.Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice describes the scope of activities inherent in pediatric nursing. It describes competent aspects of nursing care and professional performance that are measurable and evaluated and also are common to nurses engaged in the care of children and their families based on their generalist or advanced practice role. As current NAPNAP President Carolyn Jaramillo de Montoya states in her President’s Message (also found in this issue) this one document speaks to the standards of professional performance in all areas of pediatric nursing practice and will serve as a resource not only for nursing faculty and students but also for health care providers, researchers, and those involved in funding, legal, policy, and regulatory activities.We are optimistic that you will find Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice useful not only in your daily practice, but also when answering larger questions relating to education, public policy, and advocacy. We also hope that this document will be illustrative for nursing educators who may not fully recognize pediatric nursing as an important component in the plans of study for generalist nurses, but who will now view the pediatric nursing specialty through the larger lens utilized by NAPNAP and SPN. The health of our nation’s children is dependent on well-educated, qualified, and competent nurses who have the requisite knowledge and skill to care for our more than 71 million children and adolescents living in the United States today. We challenge educators to seriously consider these critically important standards written to improve pediatric health care, and we challenge all who care for and about children’s health to take this pivotal moment and embody the defined scope and standards of pediatric nursing practice.It took a large team to develop this unified voice. In particular, I would like to acknowledge other members of the writing work group: Linda Kollar and Elizabeth Preze of NAPNAP, and LaDonna Northington, Linda Youngstrom, Sandy Mott, and Belinda Puetz of SPN. Thanks also to Carolyn, Pat Clinton, Jo Ann Serota, Karen KellyThomas, Dolores Jones, and Jennifer Knorr at NAPNAP. As many of you are aware, after our initial writing, a draft was sent to a Review Panel Work Group consisting of more than 20 members of both NAPNAP and SPN. Following this step, a draft was posted on the ANA, NAPNAP, and SPN Web sites for public comment. To all who participated in these important steps, thank you!You will have the opportunity to order your copy of Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice at our mutual Web sites: www.napnap.org, www.nursebooks.org, or www.pedsnurses.org. We also plan to create several feedback forums at those sites and hope that you will share your thoughts about the document with us. In many ways, the work of writing pediatric nursing’s scope and standards of practice is an ongoing process as our profession continues to evolve and the health care climate changes. Your input will be invaluable, and we encourage you to be an active part of this process when, in a few short years, we will have another opportunity to update our scope and standards of practice. Spring is in the air! And in this season of renewal and growth, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) and the Society of Pediatric Nurses (SPN) are proud to be launching a new, unified Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice document for the benefit of children, the public, and all the nurses who care for them. For the past two years, I have been privileged to serve as NAPNAP’s Co-Chair for the Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice Writing Work Group. This project has been a unique, collaborative effort in which NAPNAP members joined with representatives of the American Nurses Association (ANA), SPN, and the SPN Co-Chair, Lynn Mohr. After many months of hard work, we are proud to see this endeavor now come to fruition with March 2008 as the scheduled release date. The primary purpose of a scope of practice statement is to protect the public and enhance consumers’ access to competent health care services. It also is incumbent upon a profession to define the scope and standards of practice within the profession and to ensure that scope of practice changes reflect the evolution of abilities within the particular health care discipline. Prior to our efforts, two pediatric “scope and standards” documents were available to practitioners, the nursing profession, legislators, regulators, accrediting bodies, and the public. The soon-to-be-released document is based on the ground-breaking work that was put forth in the original Scope and Standards of Pediatric Nursing Practice (American Nurses Association & Society of Pediatric Nurses 2003American Nurses Association & Society of Pediatric NursesScope and standards of pediatric nursing practice. Silver Spring, MD, American Nurses Association2003Google Scholar), the Scope and Standards of Practice: Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) (National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners 2004National Association of Pediatric Nurse PractitionersScope and standards of practice: Pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP). Author, Cherry Hill, NJ2004Google Scholar), and Nursing: Scope & Standards of Practice (American Nurses Association 2004American Nurses AssociationNursing: Scope and standards of practice. Author, Silver Spring, MD2004Google Scholar). By developing a unified document, NAPNAP and SPN seek to reduce confusion and create a new and improved set of standards that addresses all areas of pediatric nursing practice. In our writing, we also were guided by several assumptions recently described in the monograph Changes in Healthcare Professions’ Scope of Practice: Legislative Consideration (Association of Social Work Boards 2007Association of Social Work Boards, Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, Federation of State Medical Boards, National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc., & the National Association of Boards of PharmacyChanges in healthcare professions’ scope of practice: Legislative considerations.http://www.ncsbn.org/ScopeofPractice.pdfDate: 2007Google Scholar). This work, put forth by an interdisciplinary panel of health professional groups (including nursing, social work, medicine, pharmacy, and physical and occupational therapy), suggests the following: (a) public protection should have top priority in scope of practice decisions; (b) changes in scope of practice are inherent in our current health care system; (c) collaboration among health care providers should be the professional norm; and (d) overlap among professions is necessary. That is: no one profession owns a skill or activity in and of itself. Rather, it is the entire scope of activities within a practice that makes a particular profession unique. Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice describes the scope of activities inherent in pediatric nursing. It describes competent aspects of nursing care and professional performance that are measurable and evaluated and also are common to nurses engaged in the care of children and their families based on their generalist or advanced practice role. As current NAPNAP President Carolyn Jaramillo de Montoya states in her President’s Message (also found in this issue) this one document speaks to the standards of professional performance in all areas of pediatric nursing practice and will serve as a resource not only for nursing faculty and students but also for health care providers, researchers, and those involved in funding, legal, policy, and regulatory activities. We are optimistic that you will find Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice useful not only in your daily practice, but also when answering larger questions relating to education, public policy, and advocacy. We also hope that this document will be illustrative for nursing educators who may not fully recognize pediatric nursing as an important component in the plans of study for generalist nurses, but who will now view the pediatric nursing specialty through the larger lens utilized by NAPNAP and SPN. The health of our nation’s children is dependent on well-educated, qualified, and competent nurses who have the requisite knowledge and skill to care for our more than 71 million children and adolescents living in the United States today. We challenge educators to seriously consider these critically important standards written to improve pediatric health care, and we challenge all who care for and about children’s health to take this pivotal moment and embody the defined scope and standards of pediatric nursing practice. It took a large team to develop this unified voice. In particular, I would like to acknowledge other members of the writing work group: Linda Kollar and Elizabeth Preze of NAPNAP, and LaDonna Northington, Linda Youngstrom, Sandy Mott, and Belinda Puetz of SPN. Thanks also to Carolyn, Pat Clinton, Jo Ann Serota, Karen KellyThomas, Dolores Jones, and Jennifer Knorr at NAPNAP. As many of you are aware, after our initial writing, a draft was sent to a Review Panel Work Group consisting of more than 20 members of both NAPNAP and SPN. Following this step, a draft was posted on the ANA, NAPNAP, and SPN Web sites for public comment. To all who participated in these important steps, thank you! You will have the opportunity to order your copy of Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice at our mutual Web sites: www.napnap.org, www.nursebooks.org, or www.pedsnurses.org. We also plan to create several feedback forums at those sites and hope that you will share your thoughts about the document with us. In many ways, the work of writing pediatric nursing’s scope and standards of practice is an ongoing process as our profession continues to evolve and the health care climate changes. Your input will be invaluable, and we encourage you to be an active part of this process when, in a few short years, we will have another opportunity to update our scope and standards of practice.