N108: Transition to the Registered Professional Nurse

N108: Transition to the Registered Professional Nurse Role Study Guide research the various factors involved in creating environments that would attract and retain professional nursing staff. In 1991, the American Nurses Credentialing Center established a program to be designated Magnet Hospital, where nurse researchers (sponsored by ANA) conducted reputational studies and created a body of literature. These studies continued and characteristics emerged that identified good places to work with quality nursing care and involved all departments and disciplines in hospitals. As the study of hospitals continued, characteristics emerged that resulted in identifying hospitals that were considered a good place to work. Magnet hospitals are identified as having strong leadership, and they offer educational resources to employees, provide a work environment in which nurses can grow and challenge themselves, and allow nurses to be involved in problem solving. A strong aspect of Magnet hospitals is a decrease in the turnover of staff, a factor that speaks to employee satisfaction. There have been eight characteristics essential to Magnet hospitals identified and include the following: • Support education • Retain clinically competent coworkers • Autonomous nursing practice • Positive RN-MD relationships • Supportive nurse manager • Control over nursing practice • Adequate staffing • Culture where concern for the patient as paramount 2.16 Regulatory Bodies State Agencies State Boards of Nursing This is the administrative department of the government legally empowered to carry out the provisions of the Nurse Practice Act. Each state board must operate within a framework of its own state law regarding the practice of nursing, but all cooperate through the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). For example, state boards acting together through the NCSBN contract with the company that prepared the licensing examinations for RNs and practical nurses that are used throughout the United States. They also cooperate with other organizations, such as the ANA, the NLN, and the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) in some matters, but maintain the separation that is required of a group whose focus is protection of the public through effective licensure. The board of nursing typically performs the following functions: • Establishes standards for licensure • Examines and licenses applicants • Provides for interstate endorsement

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