Nurse Practice Act Paper

Words: 695
Pages: 3

Who can push?
Amber Hawkins
ECPI University
NUR 230

Who can push?
In the nursing field there is many different types of laws or guidelines to protect both the patient as well as the nurse preforming care to patients. Although there are procedures that can be legally preformed is some states but not in others. It is important for nurses to always be aware of what is within their scope of practice. IV administration is one type of procedure that is greatly important; this means that a nurse should always be knowledgeable about what aspects of IV administrations that he/she can perform using the Nurse Practice Act.
Nurse Practice Act
The Nurse Practice Act is a guideline to protect patients and nurses with guidelines as to what procedures can be performed by whom and when. Nurses use the Nurse Practice Act to have a guideline as to their scope of practice, education requirements, and as a guide for daily practice. Information about your states Nurse Practice Act can always be found on the internet, such as South
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A RN plays a more important part in IV administration; RN’s start, hang and push medicines. But before a RN can do any of that they have to “first assess and document baseline vital signs, heart and lung sounds, and fluid volume status” (Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2011) to start an IV. The main goal of an RN is insure that infection doesn’t accrue at the IV site. RN’s can supervise LPN’s when hanging a piggy back and can delegate to the LPN to help maintain patency. As long as an RN has orders from the physician they can administer medicines IV and blood as well. In an emergency situation a nurse may already perform the action then receive an order from the physician. Punishment for not following scope of practice for any person can result in immediate job termination and may lead to losing their