Core elements of U.S. nurse practice acts and incorporation of nursing diagnosis language.
OBJECTIVE
This paper describes the core elements of U.S. nurse practice acts and provides an update of Lavin, Meyer, and Carlson (1999) Review of the Use of Nursing Diagnosis in U.S. Nurse Practice Acts.


METHODS
Nurse practice acts from all states and the District of Columbia were collected and analyzed using qualitative content analysis with the software NVivo8.


RESULTS
Major themes identified were nursing "care," nursing process, supervision/delegation, executing the medical regimen, health maintenance/prevention, and teaching nursing. The concept "diagnosis" was a subtheme in 86% of practice acts; however, only 63% utilized "diagnosis" language.


CONCLUSIONS
The number of practice acts utilizing nursing "diagnosis" language has remained nearly constant over the past decade.


CONCLUSIONS
Consensus on the use of nursing diagnosis language may be facilitated through linkages with nursing theory and revision of the model Nurse Practice Act.
Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia, PA, USA. ojarrin@nursing.upenn.edu
Olga F
OF
Jarrín
D006801:Humans; D007587:Job Description / Q000592:standards; D007884:Legislation, Nursing; D008008:Licensure, Nursing / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D009736:Nursing Process; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012015:Reference Standards; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States