Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
Despite a majority of the respondents reported that they were
familiar with the guidelines for developing their scope of
professional practice, there is evidence to contradict this. The
findings from this study showed that most of the respondents
indicated that more in-service information on the Scope of
Professional Practice and its implication to nursing practice would be
useful. Also, more than half of the nurses in the study believed that
the concept of certification to state that they had undertaken the
necessary training and education to extend and expand their
nursing roles was appropriate. This is inconsistent with the nursing
board’s and the nursing profession’s recommendation that the
development of nursing practice should take the form of continuing
education and planned learning experiences rather than certification
to verify competency in an extended role (An Bord Altranais 2000).
Respondents’ overall positive attitude toward role extension would
again suggest that they were not entirely familiar with An Bord
Altranais’ (2000) recommendations for the development of nursing
roles. According to the Irish nursing board, developments in nursing
practice should be in the form of role expansion, with an emphasis
on expanded theory, knowledge and skills in the philosophy of
nursing, which will enable nurses to provide holistic patient care.
The concept of role extension, although not explicitly denounced, is
nevertheless not recommended due to its focus on tasks rather than
the patient and the lack of emphasis on performance of new skills
within the boundaries of nursing and caring.
The findings also indicated that respondents had a slightly more
positive attitude towards role expansion than role extension. As in
numerous other studies, nurses in this study recognized the
benefits that expanding their clinical roles will have on the quality of
patient care in the form of holistic approach to nursing care,
continuity of care and nurses possessing a wider range of skills.
However, in view of their lack of understanding regarding the
concept of role extension, this result may be open to discussion.
Findings from this study also indicate that respondents were aware
of the drawbacks of role expansion. A major obstacle to nurses
assuming added roles is a resulting depleted time to carry out basic
nursing duties.
No relationship was identified between the attitudes of respondents
towards the expansion of their nursing roles and their area of
clinical practice. However, there was a significant relationship
between the area of clinical practice and nurses’ attitudes towards
the extension of their nursing roles. This significant relationship
would appear to corroborate with findings from other studies which
indicated that nurses working in highly technical areas such as
- 526 -