Key elements of professional nursing practice: A scoping review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Professional nursing practice can be used as a standard reference for implementing nursing care to help nurses provide quality care in accordance with their authorities. However, there is no standard of nursing practice that presents key elements in nursing professionalism that can be used as a reference for clinical and community practice. AIM: The review is purposed to synthesis the pieces of literature telling the development and/or application and/or assessment of a professional nursing practice to determine the crucial elements. METHODS: This study was guided by the following the five stages of scoping revie by Arskey and O’Malley which include (1) identifying the research question, (2) identifying relevant studies, (3) selecting studies, (4) charting the data, and (5) reporting results. Using electronic databases including ScienceDirect, EBSCO, ProQuest, PubMed, and Google Scholar within keywords of “professional nursing practice,” “model,” “nurse,” and “conceptual framework.” RESULTS: Of a total of 3103 paper found, 28 papers were selected. From the results of the analysis, there were seven themes which the researcher used as key components of professional nursing practice, namely, (1) health system competency, (2) professional value, (3) reward and performance evaluation, (4) leadership, (5) nursing care, (6) professional development, and (7) basic care competency. CONCLUSION: A professional nursing practice would provide the minimum standard of quality nursing practice.