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Tips from TSE: Professional Development Scope and Standards: What the changes to the staff development standards will mean for your professional practice

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, December 18, 2009

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In March 2008, a task force was formed to review and revise the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) Professional Development Scope and Standards of Practice. This document establishes the range of practice and the principles by which we conduct our professional lives.

It is no easy task to revise such an important document. Why undertake such a critical venture? To begin with, says task force member Dora Bradley, PhD, RN-BC, vice president of nursing professional development at Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, “it has been 10 years since the last version was created. There have been so many changes in healthcare as well as our profession, so we must look at the Scope and Standards in terms of how our roles have evolved.” Bradley notes that, for example, technology was not even addressed in the most recent Scope and Standards.

“The new version of the Scope and Standards must also consider the fact that the continuing education target audience is now worldwide,” she says. “We must think in terms of a globalization concept and how education needs can be assessed across the world. Simulation and virtual reality must also be incorporated as these teaching modalities grow in scope and importance. I remember someone saying that 98% of the change in the world has occurred in the last 100 years, and 90% of that change has occurred in the last 10.”

Editor’s note: This excerpt was adapted from the December issue of The Staff Educator. Discover all the benefits of subscribing to The Staff Educator!

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