title: Advanced nursing practice hours as part of endorsement requirements for nurse practitioners in Australia: a definitional conundrum.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To define what can be considered to be nursing practice, time that can be calculated as the practice of nursing as well as what is considered to be advanced nursing practice and how all this can be related to the current endorsement process for nurse practitioner (NP) in Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Current codes and guidelines cited by the Nurse and Midwifery Board of Australia related to nursing practice and NPs, cited competency standards from the Australian Midwifery Accreditation Council, as well as published material of peak nursing bodies from within Australia as well as internationally were used. Information was also obtained through government health and professional organization websites. All information in the literature regarding current and past status and nomenclature of advanced practice nursing was considered relevant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The definitional entanglement of what is considered to be nursing practice, the calculation of specific hours and what is advanced nursing practice interferes with endorsement of NPs in Australia, and a clear understanding of what is meant by advanced practice is required to move forward.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dependent on how practice is interpreted by the Nurse and Midwifery Board of Australia directly affects the outcome of the endorsement proceedings for individual NP candidates.
authors.affiliation: La Trobe University, Clinical School of Nursing at Austin Health School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia. a.scanlon@latrobe.edu.au
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scanlon
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cashin
authors.forename: Ngaire
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Julianne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bryce
mesh_terms: D057179:Advanced Practice Nursing / Q000592:standards; D001315:Australia; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003406:Credentialing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000592:standards*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D013997:Time Factors