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What the ANA's New Professional Development Scope and Standards Mean for Nursing Staff

 |  By HealthLeaders Media Staff  
   December 15, 2009

In March 2008, a task force was formed to review and revise the American Nurses Association's (ANA) Professional Development Scope and Standards of Practice. This document establishes the range of practice and the principles by which nursing staff development professionals conduct our professional lives.

It is no easy task to revise such an important document. Why undertake such a critical venture? To begin with, says task force member Dora Bradley, PhD, RN-BC, vice president of nursing professional development at Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, "it has been 10 years since the last version was created. There have been so many changes in healthcare as well as our profession, so we must look at the Scope and Standards in terms of how our roles have evolved." Bradley notes that, for example, technology was not even addressed in the most recent Scope and Standards.

"The new version of the Scope and Standards must also consider the fact that the continuing education target audience is now worldwide," she says. "We must think in terms of a globalization concept and how education needs can be assessed across the world. Simulation and virtual reality must also be incorporated as these teaching modalities grow in scope and importance. I remember someone saying that 98% of the change in the world has occurred in the last 100 years, and 90% of that change has occurred in the last 10."

The task force started by conducting an intensive literature review of training and continuing education in and out of the healthcare arena. The ANA mandated that the group create something "that would represent not only current practice, but a future trajectory to guide practice for the next five years," says Bradley. "We must create a 30,000-ft. view because our specialty has so many different arms where we practice, our roles, and practice setting, etc."

The task force identified specific future trends to be addressed. These include (Bradley et al., 2009):

  • Increased use of technology
  • Global target audience
  • Teaching/learning modalities
  • Evidence-based practice
  • Increased accountability
  • Increased interdisciplinary involvement
  • Fiscal management
  • Need for complex implementation expertise
  • Professional development metrics
  • Decreasing time to achieve competency
  • Generational differences, including the emerging adult (Tanner, Arnett, and Leis, 2009)
  • Escalating competing priorities
  • Knowledge management and succession planning
  • Increased need for clinical affiliations and academic partnerships
  • Move toward learning as an investment in human capital
  • Cost avoidance versus expenditure
  • Focus on transition into practice

Bradley says the "influence of the work environment became very apparent, which was not addressed in previous editions. Learning and practice environments have tremendous influence on how much of this role [as identified in the Scope and Standards] can be operationalized by the individual specialist. For example, a one-person staff development department can't do orientation, continuing education, research, etc., not when there is only one person doing everything. We must be respectful of the practitioner's practice environment."

There was a significant struggle as the task force altered the practice model. The former model was a triangle with three intersecting circles (continuing education, staff development, and academic education), which appeared to reflect the professional development aspects of the nurse.

The proposed new model is a systems model focusing on the practice of nursing professional development (NPD). The system includes inputs (environment, learner, NPD specialist), system throughputs (evidence-based practice, practice-based evidence, orientation, competency program, inservice education, continuing education, career development, research-systematic inquiry, scholarship, academic partnerships, pole of NPD specialist), and system outputs (outcomes, change, learning, professional role competence and growth). Note that academic education is now addressed via partnerships. Nurses in academia have their own set of competencies and a certification model separate from the Professional Development Scope and Standards. The proposed model is also more fluid, documenting inputs, throughputs, and outputs (Bradley et al., 2009).

The suggested changes were posted on various professional association Web sites, including the ANA and the National Nursing Staff Development Organization (NNSDO), for public comment. Education requirements generated the most buzz: The task force proposed that educational preparation for NPD specialists be a master's degree in nursing. This is controversial because many NPD specialists have a master's degree in education. Due to public comment, the proposal has been changed to a master's degree in nursing or appropriate related discipline such as education.

However, if the master's degree is in such a related discipline, the NPD specialist must hold a baccalaureate in nursing. Additionally, the task force recommends that executive leaders for NPD be RNs prepared at the doctoral level in nursing or education. At a minimum, department administrators are strongly encouraged to have a master's degree in nursing or related field.

When will the revisions be published? At presstime, the task force was working to approve the final revisions and submit them to the ANA. The ANA must guide the proposed document through its approval process, and hopefully, the new version of the Scope and Standards will be ready to print in the first quarter of 2010.

Bradley points out that the task force received about 30 pages of public comment pertaining to the proposed document. She notes that this is comparable to feedback received from other specialties, which have more practitioners, when their Scope and Standards undergo revision. Professional development specialists are obviously deeply committed to their specialty and the way they practice.

Those of us involved in this specialty would be wise to incorporate the future trends identified by the task force into our practice settings. The effect and the rapidity of change greatly influence how we incorporate these trends. The new Professional Development Scope and Standards should be used to enhance our professional growth and development as well as our practice initiatives.

References
Bradley, D., et al. (2009). "The Past, Present, and Future: The Evolution of the ANA Nursing Professional Development Scope and Standards." General session at the 2009 NNSDO convention, Philadelphia.
Tanner, J.L., Arnett, J.J., and Leis, J.A. (2009). "Emerging Adulthood: Learning and Development During the First Stage of Adulthood." In M. C. Smith & N. Defrates-Densch (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Adult Learning and Development, 34–67. New York: Routledge.


This article was adapted from one that originally appeared in the December issue of The Staff Educator, an HCPro publication.

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