Nursing and Public Policy Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay

Nursing and Public Policy
Name
Institution
Due Date
Nursing and Public Policy
The Nurse Practice Act (ss. 464.001-464.027)
Before delving deeper into this paper, it is crucial to first define the term registered nurse as it is described in Florida. The Nurse Practice Act of Florida (revised in 2020), a registered nurse is defined as “any person licensed in this state or holding an active multistate license under s. 464.0095 to practice professional nursing.” In the state of Florida, the terms professional nurse and registered are often used in place of the other.
The health policy dubbed ss. 464.001-464.027 mainly outlines issues to do with the delegation of duties for registered nurses. As per this policy, RNs in Florida can delegate their duties to either a home health aide or a certified nursing assistant. However, before delegation, the RN must establish the competency levels of such individuals. It is crucial to mention that also the tasks being delegated must meet certain criteria, including being within the nursing scope of practice, has a predictable outcome, does not necessitate any modifications from patient to patient, and does not endanger patients’ lives. The policy also indicates that the tasks must frequently be occurring, requires certain known and unchanging sequence of steps, and does not call for ongoing clinical judgment, assessment, and interpretation.
Aside from the above, the policy stipulates that an RN can delegate the administration of certain prescription medications. However, the RN must ensure that the home health aide and the certified nursing assistant are reliable pursuant to s. 464.489 or s. 464.2035. However, the policy stipulates that an RN should not “delegate the administration of any controlled substance listed in Schedule II, Schedule III, or Schedule IV of s. 893.03 o...