Maintaining competence in nursing practice: - Essay Example

Due to these demands and requirements, some professional standards and skills are expected from the nurses. The standards are used to assess professional competency levels both for obtaining and retaining license to practice as a registered nurse or midwife in the US, UK, Australia and other countries in the world. It is very important for a registered nurse to maintain standards of competence to survive in the profession and also to do justice to the patient. There are basically four domains under which the National Competency Standards for Registered Nurses are organized (ANMCI, 2005).

They are professional practice, critical thinking and analysis, provision and coordination of care and collaborative and therapeutic practice. In this essay, understanding and development of professional development portfolio based on national competency standards will be discussed. The portfolio will be attached under appendix. Domain: Professional Practice Standard: Practices in accordance with legislation affecting nursing practice and health care. Element: Practices in accordance with legislation affecting nursing practice and health care.

Element: Practices in accordance with legislation affecting nursing practice and health care. Professional practice domain relates to ethical, legal and professional responsibilities of the nurse which are imparted through adequate knowledge, accountability of practice, protection of the rights of individuals and groups and also functioning as per the guidelines and expectations of legislations of healthcare and nursing (ANMC, 2006). I understand that as a nurse, it is my duty to practice as per the rules, regulations and laws governing nursing and health care.

This element is very important as I graduate, because more responsibility will be shouldered on me as a registered nurse and it my my duty to excise nursing within legal limits. I know that I must adhere to legal requirements concerning administration of various medications. At the same time, I must be able to identify unprofessional practice with regard to privacy legislation and confidentiality. Domain: Critical thinking and analysis Standard: Practices within an evidence-based framework. Element: Identifies the relevance of research to improving individual/group health outcomes.

Critical thinking and analysis refers to research for practice which is possible through thorough professional development and value for evidence (ANMC, 2006). Nurses play an important role in the health promotion of an individual due to their direct contact and proximity with the patients. The 3 basic roles of a nurse are that of a practitioner, leader and researcher. As a practitioner, the nurse attends to all the medical needs of the patient and as a leader she takes decisions which relate to, influence and facilitate the actions of others with an aim to achieve a particular goal.

As a researcher, the nurse aims to implement studies to determine the actual effects of nursing care and to work towards further improvement in nursing care (Nettina, 2006). Evidence based practice is very essential in every role of a nurse in nursing practice and contributes to better patient outcomes. Through out graduation, I was taught about the importance of evidence based practice, because of which I am able to identify the importance of research. I understand, it is very important for me to participate in research by retrieval of articles through databases, internet and library