RUSON scope of practice: what is it?

Abstract

Nursing is a skilled profession in Australia, requiring either a diploma or bachelors level qualification in order to practice (Victoria State Government Department of Health 2021). In the past decade, the primary means of accessing employment in the healthcare sector for undergraduate nursing students was via the ‘support worker’ stream which saw students undertake work as assistants in nursing [AIN] or personal care assistants [PCA] across aged or acute care with benefit to both patients and nursing staff (Algoso et al 2019;Crevacore et al 2019; Gerace et al 2018). In this capacity, upon completion their first year of undergraduate nursing studies, the student nurse was able to carry out fundamental patient care as directed by the Registered Nurse [RN] which may include hygiene, feeding, or fall prevention, allowing the RN time to carry out more complex care (Cowan et al 2015;Davies et al 2017). However, with increasing healthcare needs of the public, changes in complexities to the RN’s scope of practice, and a nursing deficit of 123,000 nurses predicted by 2030, the Registered Undergraduate Student of Nursing [RUSON] workforce was implemented with great potential to benefit the Victorian health sector and undergraduatenursing students (Willets et al 2022).