Standards for Nurses in Delaware

¶ … Delaware Board of Nursing (DeBON): The role of the nurse The Delaware Board of Nursing (DeBON) is part of the larger Delaware system of state regulation of all professions and jobs that interact with the public. The purpose of the "Division of Professional Regulation is to ensure the protection of the public's health, safety and welfare, by providing administrative and investigative services that serve the citizens of Delaware, professional licensees, license applicants, other state and national agencies and private organizations" (About agency, 2014, State of Delaware).

Nursing is a vocation and a professional discipline which must maintain specific standards, including educational barriers to entry (License by exam, 2014, State of Delaware). Using licensure exams and background checks ensure that patients can seek treatment with the confidence that the healthcare practitioner they will be dealing with has a certain level of competency. Of course, for the nurse, the practice of healthcare is a lifelong pursuit and obtaining a license is only the first step in becoming a competent nurse.

The Delaware Nurse Practice Act lists the curriculum nurses must study and the qualifications of nursing instructors. Given the weighty responsibilities which healthcare professionals assume, it is essential to have detailed standards regarding the expectations of nurses. Different levels of education and different specialties are defined within the Act, reflecting the multifaceted profession of nursing and the different paths to entry of nursing professionals.

"LPN and RN programs shall provide for concurrent or correlated theory and clinical practice in the physical and/or mental health care of individuals of all ages the nursing care of mothers and newborns, children, adults, the aged, individuals with mental health problems, and individuals in diverse settings, not necessarily in separate courses" (2.4.1.7.2). The most important and distinctive act that an RN performs is functioning as an advocate for patients. RNs address the physical, social, psychological, and environmental factors that promote health and wellness.

RNs engage in a variety of tasks spanning from diagnosis treatment to education to research. In all of these diverse capacities, however, the critical and unifying principle is the patient-centered focus of nursing. The discussions of the DeBON meeting underlie the seriousness of the task of the nurse and the degree to which regulatory concerns affect the structure of nursing education and the demarcation of the different spheres of nursing.

My knowledge of the functions of DeBON will influence my practice in that they have made me more aware of what specific duties lay within the framework of my field. It also made me more aware of the institutionalized influences upon nursing in general: nursing is affected by issues which lie far beyond the immediate environment of the nurse's current context of practice.

Once I am a registered nurse, I believe that DeBON will influence my actions through my awareness of the careful consideration which has been given to the tests and education I have embarked upon.