The legal aspects of nursing includes a discussion of the laws and regulations that have in the past, and continue to provide the minimum standards for nursing. Each state has a nurse practice act which defines the legal scope of nursing for that state. Nurse practice acts do provide organization and public protection, but may be a source of confusion for the nurse.
Laws and regulations regarding nursing practice, became necessary by the early 1900s; nursing had developed and matured to the point where minimum standards for entry to the profession were needed. The first laws were the nurse registration acts; in 1903, the first nurse registration act was made law in North Carolina which stated that anyone paying a fee to be listed in the state register could practice nursing. In 1938, New York State passed the first mandatory nurse practice act which was a law establishing two levels of nursing, licensed registered nurse and licensed practical nurse; only professionals licensed under the act could practice nursing. In 1970, The American Nurses' Association amended the 1955 wording of its model definition of nursing to eliminate the prohibition on nursing diagnosis. In 1979, further amendments encompassed the broad scope of nursing in today's practice settings (Ford, 1985).
In 1987, the Office of Connecticut's Attorney General was asked for an opinion as to whether nurse practitioners, acting according to protocols, were permitted by statute to prescribe drugs. Since 1975, twenty-six jurisdictions enacted statutes or administrative regulations which address the issue of authority of nurses to prescribe drugs under certain conditions; in at least four other states, the law is considered ambiguous. The development of the nurse practice act in Connecticut is reflective of national trends in the history of nursing regulation. The 1989 legislation regarding the issue of advanced practice nursing, made clear the nurses comple...