The 2014 Scope and Standards of Practice for Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: Key Updates

Abstract

The 2014 Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice is the specialty’s description of competent nursing practice. The scope portion of this document identifies the focus of the specialty by defining nursing practice extents and limits. Standards are statements that identify the duties and obligations for which specialty nurses are held accountable, including general registered nurses and advanced practice nurses. This article begins with a brief overview of the revision process. The author describes key factors that influenced the revision, such as external documents and current priorities in healthcare, and synthesizes significant changes to the document, including commentary and comparisons to the generalist Scope and Standards of Practice. Implications for nursing education and a companion resource are discussed