Thefourofus

Isn't it interesting that nurses were primarily males before Nightengales time?

CNS are APRNs.

Bullying started in nursing school. All the policies by Joint Commission and a varity of other organization including ANA are not going to solve anything. Incivility and Bullying are not nicessarily the same thing. We've got to stop being afraid to call something what it is. Deciding to call bullying incivility because it sounds nicer is part of the problem. Bullying is ugly; it destroys people's careers and lives and makes a mockery of the profession.

May I suggest anyone that has a problem with vegetarian or vegan diets look at the science. LifeStyle Medicine would argue the point. Plant-based nutrition reverses diabetes type 2 and cardiac disease.

No, offering nutritional advice is not out a nurses scope of practice. It is our responsibility as long as we are not prescribing a dietary regimen. If we tried to prescribe then we would be practicing medicine without a license. It is disturbing to me how much nurses are giving their practices away because they do not understand their scope of practice. This happens regularly because we avoid the work it takes to know the laws in the states where we practice and by not knowing our scopes of practice. Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, we don't have enough time in school learning about what our scope actually covers. Its left up to us to learn the intricacies of our legal practice. How many of us come out of nursing school believing that nurses are a medical profession? That thought process is frightening. What makes nursing different? The specialty practice is in large part what covers people when they are educating patients. It is up to nurses to define their practice, not the physicians and not the CEO, CFO etc. They don't know. They know their job, not ours.

Know your scope of practice and how to apply the laws in your state is the primary concern. Language is key. I've been a nurse herbalist for at least two years now. I have a carefully worded and explicit disclaimer. I work as part of a team and my clients are well aware of the lines of demarcation. I am careful to go over the clause and what they can expect from me and what I expect from them. I have permissions statements so that I can communicate with their PCP. AHNA has a position statement that is part of our scope of practice and my state has a complementary practice clause. Education is as one respondent suggested like another educational program separate from nursing. One will find this the case for any modality that they want to practice. Nurses have a lot at stake as do our clients/patients when we discuss and chose to use complementary health approaches (formerly CAM). I use a variety of approaches and all of them has taken a significant amount of study. I'm now preparing for the Nurse Coach Board and working on a doctorate of Health Psychology with a focus on psychoneuroimmunology as we speak. I also am board certified in holistic nursing as an advanced holistic nurse (AHN-BC) and just completed a renewal cycle with well over 1000 hours of education for a 5 yr cycle--required 100 hrs for a renewal cycle.