The practice standards help to guide the nursing profession by outlining competencies and behaviours that all clients can expect each time they interact with an LPN, RN or NP. These standards outline what nurses are accountable for and what the public can expect of the nurses that care for them and their family members.
They support nurses to provide safe, competent, ethical and compassionate care to the public by setting requirements for nursing practice. Over time, the standards become an extension of the nurse as they help navigate them through their practice.
The standards apply to all nurses regardless of practice setting or location within Nova Scotia. They proudly unite the profession together and represent a cohesive, professional body of healthcare leaders.
Entry-level Competencies
Entry-level competencies for nurses in Nova Scotia reflect the knowledge, skills, and judgement required of nurses to provide safe, competent, ethical and compassionate nursing care. The entry-level competencies documents outline the essential competencies that each nursing designation – LPNs, RNs and NPs - must possess at the very beginning of their career in order to provide safe, quality nursing case in any practice setting.
- Entry-to-Practice Competencies for Licensed Practical Nurses
- Entry-Level Competencies for Registered Nurses
- Entry-Level Competencies for Nurse Practitioners in Canada
Code of Ethics
In Nova Scotia, all nurses - LPNs, RNs and NPs - are accountable to practise nursing based on their respective Code of Ethics. As a nurse, your relevant Code of Ethics is a resource to assist you in practising ethically and working through ethical challenges that may arise in your practice setting with individuals, clients, families, communities and the health system. Codes of Ethics also guide behaviours and decision-making and are used in collaboration with professional standards, best practice, research, laws and regulations that guide nursing practice.
- Code of Ethics for Licensed Practical Nurses in Canada
- Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses (Includes nurses in extended roles, such as nurse practitioners.)
Standards of Practice
Standards of Practice promote, guide, direct and regulate professional nursing practice. They set out the legal and professional requirements for nursing practice and describe the level of performance expected of nurses in their practice. Standards guide the professional knowledge, skills and judgment needed to practise nursing safely.