Impact of State Board Nursing Practice Standards and Governmental Policies on Heart Disease

The Nursing Practice Act (NPA) guides nursing practice and actions across the states in the U.S. Although it varies from state to state, the NPA requires nurses to practice within their licensed scope to provide safe and appropriate quality, continually improve their competence, and advocate for their patients. A study by Cousin et al. (2021) found that nurses can improve health disparities in cardio-oncology by addressing the social determinants of health (SDOH) and racial disparities in heart and cancer care for Black breast cancer survivors and exposure to cardiovascular risk factors and barriers to preventive care and cardio-oncology rehabilitation.

As the NPA also requires nurses to improve their competence in patient care, advanced practice nurse competencies are important to address critical issues in health policy by providing a nurse perspective on the health policy agenda (Heinen et al., 2019). As provided by the NPA and the establishment of nursing standards and scope of practice for nurses, the policies determine my authority when it comes to caring for heart disease patients. As a BSN-prepared nurse, I will have an expanded authority to work in both acute and critical care for heart disease patients.