Instructions for Legal Research Activity -

The goal of this activity is to help you become more familiar and comfortable with searching for legal primary sources, which is the major focus of your Legal Research Paper. This activity will provide you with the skills you need to begin the legal research for your paper. In addition, this assignment will help you develop skills necessary to research the law related to the case study discussions. There are two lectures that also provide instructions which are key to successfully completing this assignment, so be sure to review them.  

The following is a brief summary of specific statutes, administrative codes, and provisions within those laws that you will be asked to locate and cite. Some of these statutes and codes you will also use for your paper. Depending on your topic, you may not use all of them.  But this exercise will help you become familiar with the major components of the statutes and administrative codes that govern nursing and will also help you with other assignments in the course. 

Step 1: Review the lectures (there are two) on the Legal Research Activity.  Once you have completed the lectures, access the National Council of Boards of Nursing online and follow the steps outlined in the lecture to locate your home state's Nurse Practice Act.

Step 2: You will search for the following statutes or administrative codes/rules in your home state and then those same items for your second state.  Some of the statutes and codes you will be ask to find and cite include the entire body of a Nurse Practice Act or administrative codes that govern nursing. Others you will be asked to find are specific "sections" or "provisions" within the statutes or codes.  Think of the law as a really big file cabinet with millions of papers.  Your job will be to find the file drawer with nursing law, and then the file for a specific topic, and finally the document that addresses that topic.  Your list should include the following ten statutes or administrative codes from both states.  If a certain topic is addressed in both the statutes and administrative codes, then include both the statutes and codes/regulations/rules in your answer.

1. Nurse Practice Act 

2. Administrative Code/Regulations 

3. Definition of the Practice of Nursing 

4. Board of Nursing role, powers, duties 

5. Disciplinary Actions - specifically Grounds for Discipline

6. Mandatory Reporting Requirements 

7. Advanced Practice Nursing (find in the statutes)

8. Advanced Practice Nursing (find in the administrative code/rules) 

9. Nursing Education Programs

10. Delegation and supervision (may find in statutes or administrative codes)

Step 3: First, you will locate #1 and #2 from the list above.  Review the assigned readings this week so you understand the difference between a statute and administrative code (rule or regulation) 

a. Not all states call the nursing laws "Nurse Practice Acts" - so you may not find a listing that refers to the nursing laws this way. It may be called just "Nursing" or something like that. 

b. Correctly cite the Nurse Practice Act (aka nursing statute) from your home state using correct legal citations.  I will provide you the correct citations for the Nurse Practice Act from your home state as well as information on how to figure this out for your second state.  

Step 4: Locate the specific provision (or section) listed  in 3-10 within the statutes or administrative codes for your home state and cite them using the format that the state uses for citations of statutes or administrative codes. 

What is a "provision" or "section"? 

Each statute or administrative code is made up of multiple parts or "sections".  We will refer to each individual section of the statute or code as a "provision" or "section".  Each provision will have a "title".  I will explain this in more depth in the lecture. I would suggest you look at the index of the statutes first to see if there is a reference to the item you are looking for.  If you don't see anything that seems to fit, look in the index of the administrative codes.  Remember, the statutes will probably be more general and the administrative codes/rules will provide more detail.  They both are laws, so they are equally important. 

In the lecture we discussed some of these provisions, so if you're having trouble finding what you need to locate, go back to either Nebraska or Iowa and review that information in the lecture.  But remember, each state prides itself in being "unique" so they index and organize their statutes and laws differently.  If you continue to have difficulty, give me a call or email me and I can walk you through the process over the phone.    

Step 5:  Once you have found all 10 items for your home state, do the same thing for your second state.  When you're done, you should have a list of 20 items.  If you're unable to find a specific provision in either the statute or code, then indicate so in your list.

Step 6:  Compile your two lists into one document. There is a sample of this assignment in Focus 2, so follow the format in the sample I have provided.

The two states need to answer questions from are Nebraska and Montana.

Attachment:- Assignment.rar