Paula de silva In Florida, nursing practice is determined by the Florida Nurse

Paula de silva In Florida, nursing practice is determined by the Florida Nurse Practice Act which embodies a framework for safe and professional nursing care for the patient population. The Florida Board of Nursing is the entity that makes the rules for the practice of nursing and is the regulatory body to ensure that nurses are qualified and maintain standards and scope of practice in providing safe and competent patient care. (Toney-Butler & Martin, 2023) The overall goal is to protect the public. These standards and specific scope of practices are enacted by the Florida Legislature to include the Nurse Practice Act and is tracked by the Florida Board of Nursing for accountability. Failure to maintain these standards result in loss of nursing licenses and nursing practice. Having been trained and licensed for nursing in Canada, I had to follow the required rules and regulations of the Florida Board of Nursing in order to work in Florida. This included endorsement of my license, showing documentation of actively working as a nurse, abide by the mandatory education needed to obtain the Florida nursing license, and background checks. Standards of professional nursing practice should display practice and performance. It includes nurse competency in the nursing process and the nurse’s behavior in his or her role such as ethics, communication, and education. (GCU, 2022). The nursing process of assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating are reflective in the standards of practice on the unit where I work. We have standardized rules for our patient population such as frequency of assessments, telemetry utilization, medication reconciliation, sheath removal processes, physician communication regarding standardized orders, and patient education. Most of the nurses are competent in LVAD care, sheath pulls, femstop application, and some are PH certified. All of the nurses on the unit are tested and checked off by the nursing educator bi-annually or annually for competencies in skill and knowledge. Mandatory education is also enforced quarterly in order to keep updated on changes in EBP, medications, protocols, and hospital policies. These standards of practice evaluate the performance of the nurses and is vital for those receiving nursing care and for successful patient outcomes.