Specialty Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice: Incorporating Content about the Care of Older Adults

Abstract

According to the American Nurses Association (ANA), the scope of practice statement and standards of practice for the nursing profession describe “what nursing is, what nurses do, and those responsibilities for which nurses are accountable.” Similarly, the more detailed specialty nursing scope statement and standards of practice can deeply influence nursing practice in each specialty. Specialty scope and standards of practice describe the knowledge, skills, and abilities that hospitals and other health care agencies can expect from the nurses they hire. They influence the development of continuingeducation programs, are directly tied to the contents of specialty certification examinations, and guide the development of curricula that nurses are taught in specialty master’s programs. Agencies that employ nurses rely on the scope and standards of practice when creating job descriptions and establishing baseline competencies. Although older adults make up the majority of patients in many nursing specialties, until recently, the scope and standards documents for specialty nursing practice rarely addressed issues related to older adults, and, in fact, many simply did not mention the age of the patient as influencing practice. In September 2005, the ANA included formal language addressing care of older adults in its document Recognition of a Nursing Specialty, Approval of a Specialty Nursing Scope of Practice Statement and Acknowledgement of Specialty Nursing Standards of Practice, which was approved by the ANA Congress on Nursing Practice and Economics. All new or revised specialty nursing scopes and standards of