
Being a Nurse – More Than Just Tasks
Author(s) -
Lynn M. Nagle
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
nursing leadership
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.17
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1929-6355
pISSN - 1910-622X
DOI - 10.12927/cjnl.2019.25853
Subject(s) - nursing , scope (computer science) , scope of practice , psychology , nursing practice , medicine , computer science , political science , health care , law , programming language
Within Canada, nurses' scope of practice is varied between jurisdictions, often poorly understood and way too often defined on the basis of tasks. Nurse leaders generally recognize that defining the practice of nurses solely on the basis of tasks only serves to devalue the critical thinking and evidence-base of the profession. But nurses themselves have also frequently fallen into the trap of delineating their practice in terms of tasks and time. An unfortunate outcome of this task orientation is a lack of appreciation for the full breadth of nurses' knowledge and scope of practice capabilities. In the extreme, (as I recently read in a letter to the editor) this leads to the conclusion that one doesn't need a university education to be a nurse - hospital-based training schools did the job just fine.