The Royal College of Nursing Australia (RCNA) definition
of advanced practice nursing in their Position
Statement on Advanced Practice Nursing mirrors that of the
ANMC (Board of Directors of Royal College of Nursing
Australia, 2006). However, the RCNA also states within
this position statement that advanced practice nursing:
is related to a level of practice rather than a specific role so
is therefore not restricted to nurses working in particular
contexts and having designated roles. (Board of Directors
of Royal College of Nursing Australia, 2006)
This statement supports the idea that advanced nursing
practice requires a set of attributes to function at
a higher level and is not based on the nurses’ role or
their area of nursing practice, but it confuses the issue by
mixing advanced nursing practice and advanced practice
nursing.
The set of attributes required for advanced nursing
practice is inclusive of knowledge, skills, attitudes, values,
and abilities acquired through clinical experience, postgraduate
study, and reflection in the context of nursing
practice. To solve the identified definitional conundrum
of the embedded necessity of extended practice as an element
of advanced practice, the word ”extended” needs to
be removed from the NMBA definition of advanced practice
nursing cited previously (see Table 3). This solution
then allows advanced practice to be viewed as practice
within the registered nurse scope.
The ANMC National Competency Standards define the
registered nurse domains as Professional Practice, Critical
Thinking and Analysis, Provision and Coordination
of Care, and Collaborative and Therapeutic Practice
(ANMC, 2006). The registered nurse assesses, plans,
implements, and evaluates nursing care in collaboration
with individual/s and the multidisciplinary healthcare
team so as to achieve goals and health outcomes
(ANMC, 2006). These core standards provide the basis
from which registered nurses are to build on and
further refine and develop their own advanced nursing
practice.