Task: Professional Nursing and State Level Regulations Discussion
State practice-specific board processes are similar from state to state but vary to some extent because their laws are determined by individual state legislatures, and their regulations are determined by the specific agency (Milstead, 2019, pg 58). In North Carolina (NC), that entity is the Board of Nursing. When comparing the regulations in North Carolina and Vermont it is obvious that there are many similarities in the regulations, there are also some differences. The greatest difference was found in the level of autonomy a nurse practitioner (NP) is allowed to have. Under the scope of practice for NC a nurse practitioner shall be held accountable by both Boards for the continuous and comprehensive management of a broad range of personal health services for which the nurse practitioner is educationally prepared and for which competency has been maintained, with physician supervision and collaboration as described in Rule (NCBON). In Vermont, NPs are allowed full practice after fulfilling “transition to practice” hours under a collaborative agreement with a physician, DEA registration, and VT prescription Monitoring System (VPMS) registration. Following at least one year (1600 practice hours) , NPs may qualify for a transition to practice (DeCapua, 2020). This means that in Vermont NPs can assess, diagnose and treat without supervision after they have completed the hours of transition to practice. Many other states offer similar programs that aim for NPs to practice in full capacity. NC has not made this full scope available to NPs yet, NPs must practice under the license of a supervising physician.
Another regulation that is required as an NP in the state of NC is A nurse practitioner applicant who completed a nurse practitioner education program prior to December 31, 1999 shall provide evidence of successful completion of a course of education that contains a core curriculum including 400 contact hours of didactic education and 400 hours of preceptorship or supervised clinical experience (NCBON). These requirements are state mandated for all NPs to complete prior to sitting for the board exam. This requirement gives all upcoming NPs the opportunity to have hands on clinical experience prior to graduating. The students competency will be determined through the NP program they are enrolled in.
Reference:
DeCapua, M. (2020). How Does Nurse Practitioner Authority Vary By State; Nurse Practitioner Schools retrieved from https://www.nursepractitionerschools.com/faq/how-d…
Milstead, J.A., & Short, N. M. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed). Burlington, MA: Jones & Barlett Learning.
North Carolina Board of Nursing (NCBON). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ncbon.com/practice-nurse-practit
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Task: Professional Nursing and State Level Regulations Discussion
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. Task: Professional Nursing and State Level Regulations Discussion
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. Task: Professional Nursing and State Level Regulations Discussion
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours. Task: Professional Nursing and State Level Regulations Discussion