Is there any type of organization that governs nurses US wide?

[Manatee111]

Recently, I was asked if it is individual states that govern nurses or if there was a national organization that governance over those individual states and I didn't know. So I put this question out to the knowledgable nurses here.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Not that I'm aware of.

[loveslife]

NO. Each state has a board of nursing which creates the Nurse Practice Act for that state.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

http://www.nln.org/nlnac/ NLN is about education

https://www.ncsbn.org/index.htm for boards

http://www.nursecredentialing.org/Certification.aspx testing for specialties

Governing us.....no and that's part of the problem.....

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Every state has own laws pertaining to nursing but over the years standards have developed that cross state lines. Sometimes the standards become law and other times not. There was a time when new grads took "state boards" for each state in which they were licensed. Finally all the states agreed to accept NCLEX, so you take one test only but may still have to provide other documentation for each state's licensure requirements.

[lindarn]

Isn't the ANA the official governing body of the nursing profession? That is what I always thought. Although, I will be the first to admit, they are as useful as tits on a bull. They are part of the problem.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

[llg, PhD, RN]

Isn't the ANA the official governing body of the nursing profession? That is what I always thought. Although, I will be the first to admit, they are as useful as tits on a bull. They are part of the problem.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

No. The ANA is not a governing body. They are just a professional association of nurses -- the same as other nursing associations (e.g. the ones for each specialty). The associations do not "govern" or have any legal authority over individual practitioners.

However, because the legal standards for professional practice (of any discipline, not just nursing) reference the professional standards generally accepted and practiced within the community... the associations have power. Because they represent large groups of nurses, their standards are the best articulation of "what is commonly accepted as the standard" out there for the courts to use. For example, if you want to know what the commonly accepted national standard is in perioperative nursing, you would look at what AORN had to say. If you wanted to know the commonly accepted national standard for neonatal ICU nursing, you would look at what NANN had to say, etc.

ANA is simply the most visible organization because they represent the largest number of nurses and cross all specialties. They don't have any more authority than any other association or "club." They don't make decisions that govern or regulate anything in the legal sense. They just express the opinions of their active members through policy statements, etc.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Isn't the ANA the official governing body of the nursing profession? That is what I always thought. Although, I will be the first to admit, they are as useful as tits on a bull. They are part of the problem.

JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Somewhere in the PACNW

At one time it claimed to be "the voice" of nursing, but it is not.