Nursing Practice Act of Virginia: The scope of practice in medicine, nursing, law, dentistry, and various other disciplines are usually established and regulated at the state level. This implies that the legislative body in every state establishes practice law and allocates authority for the implementation of the law to suitable regulatory agencies and boards. In relation to the nursing field, the established laws are usually in the form of professional practice acts that act as the basis for licensing standards. Licensing is in turn geared towards the protection of public health and well-being, safety, and welfare. Generally, the statute that defines and manages the nursing profession and practice is known as a nurse practice act. There are four major objectives of the nurse practice act in each state including defining the nursing professional practice, establishing the minimum academic qualifications and requirements for licensing, defining the legal titles and abbreviations that nurses may use, and providing disciplinary action for licensed nurses (Black, 2013, p.68).

Virginia's Nursing Practice Act:

The Virginia Board of Nursing is mandated with the responsibility of defining and controlling nursing practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The board achieves its mandate through ensuring the implementation of the requirements of the state regarding nursing profession and practice. In essence, the Virginia Board of Nursing ensures compliance with the regulations that govern the practice of nursing in this state. Apart from defining nursing and its scope of practice, the regulations state the pre-requisites for approval of nursing and nurse aide educational programs and licensure of registered and practice nurses. The regulations also provide requirements for the registration of clinical...

The work and function of Virginia Board of Nursing is based on the belief that each nurse practitioner is accountable to the Commonwealth as well as the public to sustain high professional standards of practice based on nursing ethics ("Regulations Governing the Practice of Nursing," 2014).
According to the Nursing Practice Act of Virginia, public health nursing is defined as the practice of promoting and safeguarding the health of populations through the use of knowledge from nursing, public health, and social sciences. Consequently, nursing practice is geared towards achieving and maintaining optimum health of an individual and community through focusing on health promotion, environmental protection, and disease prevention. The scope of practice based on the Nursing Practice Act of Virginia varies depending on the specific interest of an individual practitioner. The act provides some guidelines or guidance documents containing specific skills and decision trees for determining an individual's scope of practice. In essence, the scope of practice requires an individual's judgment since there is no place where specific skill sets are listed clearly. Therefore, the scope of practice for a nurse in Virginia is based on the specific interests and qualification of an individual nurse.

Virginia's Nursing Practice Act defines advanced practice as the provision of advanced nursing services by registered nurses who are clinical nurse specialists based on the requirements of law and regulations. In this case, the registered nurse is responsible and accountable for decision making depending on academic preparation and experience in this field. Advanced practice registered nurses have some independent prescribing privileges that include but…