Measuring Scope of Practice Enactment Among Primary Care Registered Nurses

Area of Science:

• Nursing Practice
• Primary Care
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Nursing scope of practice enactment in primary care settings remains under-researched.
• Understanding how nurses practice within their defined roles is crucial for optimizing primary care delivery.

Approach:

• Revised the Actual Scope of Practice (ASCOP) questionnaire for primary care settings through literature review and expert consensus.
• Assessed the internal consistency, construct validity, and sensitivity of the modified ASCOP via a cross-sectional survey of 178 primary care registered nurses.

Key Points:

• The modified ASCOP effectively captures key attributes of nursing scope of practice in primary care.
• The instrument demonstrated acceptable internal consistency with alpha coefficients ranging from 0.66 to 0.91.
• Primary care registered nurses reported engaging in activities within the modified scope almost always (mean score 4.8).

Conclusions:

• This study presents the first validated instrument for measuring nursing scope of practice enactment in primary care.
• The modified ASCOP questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool for assessing scope of practice among primary care registered nurses.