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There are many factors that need to be considered when determining whether or not actions are within the scope of nursing practice. One important one is to actually know your scope of practice and what defines if. According to The American Nurses Association, the scope of nursing practice describes the who, what, where, when, why, and how of nursing practice ("," 2010). In our lecture for this week defines the term scope of practice as" the activities, procedures and actions that the nurse is prepared by education to do" (GCU, n.d.). The scope of practice is created in cooperation between nurse education agencies, practicing nurses, and regulatory bodies such as state boards. These regulatory bodies enforce boundaries and regulations. Each nurse must know their domain of practice in order make sure he or she only practices what they are educated and licensed to do.

I work on a labor and delivery floor. We used to have a nurse who was asked by the covering OB to do sutures in the perineum after a delivery. I would have immediately said no, suturing is clearly outside of my scope of practice, and I have never been trained in that. Needless to say that nurse no longer works on our floor.