Advanced nursing practice hours as part of endorsement requirements for nurse practitioners in Australia: a definitional conundrum.

Purpose: 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.

Data Sources: 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.

Can mental health nurses diagnose in Australia?

The naming of health related conditions has been the traditional province of the medical profession. Occasional concessions have been made in specific narrow domains, such as psychology or speech-related pathology, but diagnosis typically has been seen as medical practitioner business. "Ownership" of language is worthy of critical discussion.

Ultimate doctor liability: a myth of ignorance or myth of control?

Ultimate medical doctor responsibility for the care delivered to patients by all professionals is a myth. Legally Lord Denning dismissed the myth in the mid-20th century in England. The assumption that a medical doctor is responsible for the care delivered by nurses has not existed in English and Australian law since that time, and it has been actively refuted.