title: Nurses' scope of practice and the implication for quality nursing care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article provides an overview of the implications for patients' health status and care needs when assessments are performed by nurses not licensed or competent to perform this task. The Waterlow scale (Judy Waterlow, The Nook, Stroke Road, Henlade, TAUNTON, TA3 5LX) scenario is used as a practice example to illustrate this case.
  The international nursing regulatory bodies, in South Africa called the South African Nursing Council, set the scope of practice wherein nurses are allowed to practice. Different categories of nurses are allowed to practice according to specified competencies, in alignment with their scope of practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective quantitative study was utilized. A checklist was used to perform an audit on a random sample of 157 out of an accessible population of 849 patient files. Data were gathered in May 2012, and the analysis was done using frequencies and percentages for categorical data. Reliability and validity were ensured, and all ethical principles were adhered to.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty percent of risk assessments were performed by nurses not licensed or enrolled to perform this task unsupervised. Areas such as tissue malnutrition, neurological deficits, and medication were inaccurately scored, resulting in 50% of the Waterlow risk-assessment scales, as an example, being incorrectly interpreted. This has implications for quality nursing care and might put the patient and the institution at risk.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lower-category nurses and student nurses should be allowed to perform only tasks within their scope of practice for which they are licensed or enrolled. Nurses with limited formal theoretical training are not adequately prepared to perform tasks unsupervised, even in the current global nursing shortage scenario.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To optimize and ensure safe and quality patient care, risk assessments should be done by a registered professional nurse, who will then coordinate the nursing care of the patient with the assistance of the lower category of nurses.
authors.affiliation: Tau Lambda-at-Large, Senior Lecturer, Health Studies, University of South Africa (Unisa), South Africa.
authors.forename: J C Irene
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lubbe
authors.forename: Lizeth
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Roets
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000592:standards*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D061214:Patient Safety; D057184:Practice Patterns, Nurses' / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013019:South Africa
keywords: Risk assessment; Waterlow™ scale; basic nursing care; scope of practice