In this issue of Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, we present an exciting new column entitled "Scope and Standards: Practice, Strategies, and Outcomes." The initial column is written by Dora Bradley, PhD, RN-BC, vice president, Nursing Professional Development, Baylor Health Care System, Dallas, Texas. Dr. Bradley chaired the task force that developed the new scope and standards of practice for nursing professional development. In the May/June 2009 issue of Journal for Nurses in Staff Development (Volume 25, Number 3), Dr. Bradley wrote about the process of developing the new nursing professional development scope and standards of practice. The work was a joint activity of the American Nurses Association and the National Nursing Staff Development Organization.
In this issue, Dr. Bradley introduces a column that will be published occasionally in the journal. The column will be written by Dr. Bradley and her colleagues who served on the task force, as well as by nursing professional development specialists in a variety of settings. Contributions are welcome from readers and, indeed, will form an essential component if the column is to meet its intended purpose.
The column is intended to not only present the new scope and standards of nursing professional development practice but also assist educators in implementing those standards in their own employment settings. In other words, we hope to make the new scope and standards of practice a living entity that helps shape an educator's day-to-day work.
Too often, in my career, I have encountered nurses who do not implement the standards of practice in their work. Sadly, many even do not know about the existence of a scope and standards of practice for their specialty. And those who do know that a scope and standards of practice exist often relegate the documents to a bookshelf at home or on a nursing unit.
In my life other than as a journal editor, I am working with a small specialty organization to develop its own scope and standards of practice. It is an exciting venture, and the enthusiasm of the volunteers who comprise the workgroup charged with the development of the scope and standards is gratifying. The support of the organization's Board of Directors for the project reflects the pride that Board members feel about this visible recognition as a specialty in nursing.
I hope that this new column will enable you to see the role that scope and standards play in our specialty area of nursing practice. I hope that you will learn how to make the scope and standards of practice come alive in your work and that you will realize that nursing professional development, like other specialty areas of practice, is guided by a scope of practice and governed by standards of practice and professional performance as well.