Standards of Practice

All nurses in Nova Scotia have standards they must follow to be able to work in the profession. These standards set the legal and professional responsibility of nurses and outline what the public should expect from any nurse in any workplace in this province. 

NSCN recognizes that nurses are experiencing unusual, challenging and rapidly evolving circumstances in our health care system. We understand this can lead to uncertainty and stress within practice environments. Nurses may be concerned about their ability to maintain standards of practice, particularly when moving to different practice areas, working with different client populations, managing demanding workloads, and working within new models of care.

Standards of practice are broad and flexible, which enable nurses to maintain them consistently even though how they do this may change depending on the context of their practice setting. Concerns or complaints received by NSCN about nursing practice are always evaluated with full consideration of the circumstances in which nurses are practising.

NSCN provides a variety of practice support tools and consultative services to help nurses understand their standards and how to apply them to their practice. We encourage nurses to access these resources as well as employer supports.

Each nursing designation (LPN, RN, NP) has standards of practice that align with each designation’s distinct and separate scope of practice: 

• Standards of Practice for Licensed Practical Nurses 
• Standards of Practice for Registered Nurses
• Nurse Practitioner Standards of Practice

In addition, RN Prescribers or RNs Authorized to Prescribe (RN-AP) are required to meet the Standards of Practice for RN Prescribers:

• Standards of Practice for RN Prescribers

In addition, all nursing designations (LPN, RN, NP) are required to meet the sexual misconduct standard for nurses: 

• Sexual Misconduct Standard of Practice for Nurses

We set the standards, in collaboration with nurses, the public and others. If a nurse is unable to meet the standards of practice, we also intervene to make sure the public is protected.