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In 1986, the American Nurses Association (ANA) published the first Standards of Home Health Practice. Revised in 1992 and expanded in 1999 to become Home Health Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, it was revised in 2008 and again in 2014. In the 2014 edition, there are 6 standards of home healthcare nursing practice and 10 standards of professional performance for home healthcare nursing. The focus of this article is to describe the home healthcare standards and to provide guidance for implementation in clinical practice. It is strongly encouraged that home healthcare administrators, educators, and staff obtain a copy of the standards and fully read this essential home healthcare resource.

The 2014 Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice is the specialty's description of competent nursing practice. The scope portion of this document identifies the focus of the specialty by defining nursing practice extents and limits. Standards are statements that identify the duties and obligations for which specialty nurses are held accountable, including general registered nurses and advanced practice nurses. This article begins with a brief overview of the revision process. The author describes key factors that influenced the revision, such as external documents and current priorities in healthcare, and synthesizes significant changes to the document, including commentary and comparisons to the generalist Scope and Standards of Practice. Implications for nursing education and a companion resource are discussed.

During this time when the walls that divide inpatient, outpatient, primary, tertiary, and community care are coming down, society should expect that the nursing profession will prepare and regulate advanced nursing practice for the good of patient care and society as a whole. To do so, schools with clinical practice graduate programs must create a consistent product; professional credentialing bodies must use consistent criteria to acknowledge advanced practice knowledge and expertise; and state boards of nursing must give legal recognition for advanced practice to these same nurses. Within this environment, advanced practice nurses will be prepared to serve society, even if their skills are applied in a variety of roles.

The progression of five professional nurses from shared governance council chairs to unit director positions and the progression of three nurses from shared governance council chairs to clinical nurse specialist roles in an 18-year period provide compelling evidence of the impact shared governance has provided in the development of future nurse leaders in our organization. The collective wisdom of those who have lived this experience suggests that the opportunities inherent in these clinical nurse leadership roles make this a logical progression, including getting noticed and nudged, developing an understanding of the big picture, developing a results orientation, and substantial skill acquisition.

To ensure that nursing as a profession is recognized for the value we provide to our organizations, communities, and the world, a consistent level of practice and professionalism will be necessary. Consistency across the profession can be achieved through support of the framework and structures required for the process of attaining Magnet designation. This article is a case study of an organization that on all levels from economic, manpower, quality, and safety has benefited from the Magnet journey.

This article describes an evidence-informed strategic planning process and framework used by a Magnet-recognized public health system in California. This article includes (1) an overview of the organization and its strategic planning process, (2) the structure created within nursing for collaborative strategic planning and decision making, (3) the strategic planning framework developed based on the organization's balanced scorecard domains and the new Magnet model, and (4) the process undertaken to develop the nursing strategic priorities. Outcomes associated with the structure, process, and key initiatives are discussed throughout the article.

This article describes the development of a new regulatory model for advanced practice nursing. The history of nursing licensure is detailed to provide a perspective of the differences in the way that advanced practice roles evolved as a result of external forces and patient needs without the direct control of regulators and the resulting variations in the interpretation and implementation of the roles nationwide. Key provisions of the new consensus model for regulation are detailed, along with implications for each of the main stakeholder groups: licensure, accreditation, certification, and education.

The initial development of the Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) was analyzed based on archival material from Harriet Werley and Norma Lang, two nurses involved with the project, and American Nurses Association materials. The process of identifying information to be included in the NMDS was contentious. Individual nurses argued on behalf of particular data because of a strong belief in how nursing practice (through information collection) should be structured. Little attention was paid to existing practice conditions that would ultimately determine whether the NMDS would be used.

The relationships between hospital Magnet® status, nursing unit staffing, and patient falls were examined in a cross-sectional study using 2004 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI®) data from 5,388 units in 108 Magnet and 528 non-Magnet hospitals. In multivariate models, the fall rate was 5% lower in Magnet than non-Magnet hospitals. An additional registered nurse (RN) hour per patient day was associated with a 3% lower fall rate in ICUs. An additional licensed practical nurse (LPN) or nursing assistant (NA) hour was associated with a 2–4% higher fall rate in non-ICUs. Patient safety may be improved by creating environments consistent with Magnet hospital standards. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 33:413–425, 2010

Competency assessment is critical for a myriad of disciplines, including medicine, law, education, and nursing. Many nurse managers and educators are responsible for nursing competency assessment, and assessment results are often used for annual reviews, promotions, and satisfying accrediting agencies' requirements. Credentialing bodies continually seek methods to measure and document the continuing competence of licensees or certificants. Many methods and frameworks for continued competency assessment exist. The portfolio process is one method to validate personal and professional accomplishments in an interactive, multidimensional manner. This article illustrates how portfolios can be used to assess competence. One specialty nursing certification board's process of creating an evidence-based portfolio for recertification or reactivation of a credential is used as an example. The theoretical background, development process, implementation, and future implications may serve as a template for other organizations in developing their own portfolio models. J Contin Educ Nurs 2009;40(12):545–552.

This article examines the initial development of the American Nurses Association's Social Policy Statement (SPS). The methodology used is the Social History of Technology. This approach provided the means to treat the SPS as an information practice or tool that resides within a technological system composed of skills, tools, and knowledge. The data for analysis include archive material and secondary sources. This study concludes that development of the SPS was inherently a local exercise in prioritizing, organizing, and promoting certain skills, tools, and knowledge associated with nursing practice, an exercise that integrated contextual influences with local realities. The study also provides a means to reflect on the development of contemporary information practices.

Nursing in the United States has expressed its intention of being a professional discipline that is culturally diverse. However, after examining the progress in this area, it is evident that nursing's movement toward cultural diversity has been slow and episodic. This article addresses cultural diversity progress in nursing and explores behaviors and actions that could enhance the cultural diversity of nursing.

This study describes barriers perceived by nurses to the implementation of research findings in a community hospital. The BARRIERS to Research Utilization Scale was distributed to 1100 registered nurses. Items related to characteristics of the organization, including lack of time and practice authority, were perceived as the greatest barriers. Results of this study are useful for determining strategies to facilitate clinical nursing research and integrate research findings in the practice setting.

Since 1996, the American Nurses Association has recognized forensic nursing as a formal specialty. Despite this recognition, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners and Emergency Department nurses struggle with incorporating evidence collection into the care they give the unconscious or comatose patient they suspect has been sexually assaulted. Through case example, this article provides an abbreviated review of the circumstances under which these patients present for care, current challenges, and barriers in upholding the standard of forensic nursing care, as well as proposed interventions for the practicing forensic nurse.

This mixed-methods study uses interviews, participant observations, and the CWEQII empowerment tool to identify structures and attributes of structures that promote control over nursing practice (CNP). Nearly 3,000 staff nurses completed the Essentials of Magnetism (EOM), an instrument that measures CNP, one of the eight staff nurse-identified essential attributes of a productive work environment. Strategic sampling is used to identify 101 high CNP-scoring clinical units in 8 high-EOM scoring magnet hospitals. In addition to 446 staff nurses, managers, and physicians on these high-scoring units, chief nursing officers, chief operating officers, and representatives from other professional departments are interviewed; participant observations are made of all unit/departmental/hospital council and interdisciplinary meetings held during a 4 to 6 day site visit. Structures and components of viable shared governance structures that enabled CNP are identified through constant comparative analysis of interviews and observations, and through analysis of quantitative measures.

Nurse executives continue to search for ways to support their staff nurses through enhancing their work environment to promote professional practice environments. Given that not all hospitals have the intensive resources necessary to pursue Magnet Recognition certification or the Texas Nurses Association's Texas Nurse-Friendly Hospital program designation, this does not prohibit them from pursuing specific components adapted for their own institution. The authors discuss 3 programs to enhance the work environment through increased professional practice. The rationale for these programs, preimplementation and postimplementation are explained.