IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jocnur/v24y2015i19-20p2871-2880.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Scope of practice decision making: findings from a national survey of Irish nurses and midwives

Author

Listed:
  • Gerard Fealy
  • Mary Casey
  • Daniela Rohde
  • Anne‐Marie Brady
  • Josephine Hegarty
  • Catriona Kennedy
  • Martin McNamara
  • Pauline O'Reilly
  • Geraldine Prizeman

Abstract

Aims and objectives The aim was to examine and describe aspects of the current scope of practice among nurses and midwives in Ireland. The objective was to describe practitioners' decision making associated with the scope of practice. Background Regulatory frameworks on the scope of practice describe the roles and activities an individual registrant is permitted to undertake in the course of professional practice. Research into the scope of practice has examined practitioners' perspectives on particular frameworks or their experiences of practice expansion, and suggests that frameworks are helpful in guiding practitioners; however, local circumstances and practitioner competence often determine scope of practice. Design A national postal survey of registered nurses and midwives was conducted to elicit self‐reports of current scope of practice. Methods A stratified random sample of 2354 registered nurses and midwives in Ireland were surveyed using the Scope‐Q, a 64‐item self‐report questionnaire. Results While over half of the respondents consulted others when making scope of practice decisions, the majority relied on their own professional judgement, acted only when they believed that they were competent to act, and recognised the limitations of their own competence. Although a small number of statistically significant associations were observed between respondents' age and self‐reported scope of practice, respondents' current scope of practice was independent of either grade or gender. Conclusions When making a decision about scope of practice, practitioners may consult other resources, including published frameworks, professional colleagues and line managers; however, most particularly, older, more experienced practitioners, rely on their own professional judgement when making scope of practice decisions. Relevance to clinical practice While published scope of practice frameworks guide practitioners on how they may act in circumstances of uncertainty, regulatory authorities should continue to emphasise individual accountability and self‐reliance in everyday decision making, so that practitioners' actions are grounded in local circumstances and self‐assessed practitioner competence.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerard Fealy & Mary Casey & Daniela Rohde & Anne‐Marie Brady & Josephine Hegarty & Catriona Kennedy & Martin McNamara & Pauline O'Reilly & Geraldine Prizeman, 2015. "Scope of practice decision making: findings from a national survey of Irish nurses and midwives," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(19-20), pages 2871-2880, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:24:y:2015:i:19-20:p:2871-2880
    DOI: 10.1111/jocn.12896
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12896
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jocn.12896?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kelley Kilpatrick, 2013. "Understanding acute care nurse practitioner communication and decision‐making in healthcare teams," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1-2), pages 168-179, January.
    2. Stephanie Fox‐Young & Christine Ashley, 2010. "Developing an Australian framework for scope of practice decisions by nurses and midwives – lessons for cross‐border standards development," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(15‐16), pages 2235-2241, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mary Casey & Daniela Rohde & Agnes Higgins & Tom Buckley & Andrew Cashin & Jacqueline Fong & Mary Hughes & Aine McHugh, 2020. "“Providing a complete episode of care”: A survey of registered nurse and registered midwife prescribing behaviours and practices," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1-2), pages 152-162, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:24:y:2015:i:19-20:p:2871-2880. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2702 .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.