Teaching as a Nursing Responsibility in Texas
The Nurse Practice Act in Texas highlights the importance of nurses staying aware of regulation, law, and guideline changes, as the act may be altered every 140 days. Learning to be mindful of political and legal changes within one’s profession can be beneficial for staying aware of relevant changes and the effects of future practices. The act also highlights a practicing nurse’s responsibility to educate patients.
Thus, according to the Texas Board of Nursing (2021), “professional nursing involves … health teachings of a person who is ill, injured, infirm, or experiencing a change in normal health processes” (p. 1). Therefore, a nurse’s primary responsibilities outside their immediate work can be considered staying informed in regard to legal modifications and maintaining adequate competency because they need to help patients manage their physical and mental states.
Legal and Regulatory Framework Supporting Nursing Education Roles
Since this is a primary nursing component, state laws and rules address and regulate this duty (Nies & McEwan, 2018). Such regulations ensure that nurses are aware of the need to teach patients and can develop this competency.
Leadership in Interprofessional Teams and the Nurse’s Advocacy Role
As a leader of an interprofessional team, I strive to lead in a democratic manner that focuses on service. Facilitating an environment that evokes a team’s strengths is essential, and as a leader, it is vital to provide effective tools and methods to your team and patients. As such, it is beneficial to be a strong and empathetic communicator and maintain diverse skills and flexibility. These skills can also be utilized when advocating for patients and their needs and educating clients about prevention and treatment options (Bastable, 2021). I will strive to develop the required competencies because, as stated by Song & McCreary (2020), many recently graduated nurses report lacking them and perceiving teaching patients as their weakness.
By understanding a patient’s varied and specific needs, a leader can efficiently form an action plan for a multitude of situations or challenges, and nurses can maintain society’s high levels of trust (Teeley, 2016). Competency includes medical knowledge but also includes administrative and collaborative skills that are consistently utilized in a healthcare setting. As such, these features are relevant to a leader functioning in an interprofessional team.
References
Bastable, S. B. (2021). Nurse as educator: Principles of teaching and learning for nursing practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Nies, M. A., & McEwan, M. (2018). Policy, politics, legislation, and community health nursing. In Community/public health nursing (7th ed.). Elsevier.
Song, Y., & McCreary, L. L. (2020). New graduate nurses’ self-assessed competencies: An integrative review. Nurse Education in Practice, 45. Web.
Teeley, Karen. (2016). Health care policy for nurses [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Texas Board of Nursing. (2021). Nursing Practice Act [PDF document]. Web.