As Registered Nurses in the United States of America, we have all experienced passing board exams and having to apply for licensure applicable to each of our individual states. The board exams now known as NCLEX or National Council Licensure Examination are universal across the country. However, individual licensing requirements for a renewal or reapplication process differ from state to state. Some states such as Texas have additional testing requirements such as the Texas Nursing Jurisprudence Exam while others do not (http://www.bon.texas.gov/olv/je.html). Each state has an individual scope of practice for nurses and each defines their own licensing requirements. While there are differences in licensure requirements as well as scope of practice, the one thing that every state has in common is that policy, regulation and change are all influenced by professional associations including many professional nursing associations (Public Sector Consultants, 2012, p. 7-11).
According to the NCSBN or National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Michigan is one of the few states that does not have a regulation defined as a nurse practice act (https://www.ncsbn.org/Nurse_Practice_Act_by_State.pdf). However, nurses are …show more content…
Professional nursing organizations help to better define and provide guidance to nurses regarding specific qualities. Areas such as professional development, advancement of the profession and perhaps most defining are policy and advocacy (Huston, 2010, p. 405). Without professional organizations such as professional nursing associations continuously researching and working to better the profession nurses would be left with relying on small scale, regional resources such as their employers and individual continuing education efforts, which may or may not be feasible for some