State Policies Regarding Nursing Delegation and Medication Administration in Child Care Settings: A Case Study

Abstract

Medication administration is an essential component of quality child care, and nurses play a central role in assuring high-quality training of child care providers. Through key informant interviews and review of public documents, this case study explored the development of state statutes and regulations for medication administration training of child care providers in the state of Connecticut, nursing liability issues related to the definition of this activity, and the role of the Connecticut State Board of Examiners for Nursing. This article also examines the interpretation of the nursing role within this context as delegation versus professional activity and the impact of such designation on nursing practice, child care providers' access to medication administration training by nurses, and children's health status in child care settings. As a result of this case study, the Connecticut State Board of Examiners for Nursing revised its policies, demonstrating an exemplar linkage among research, practice, and policy.

Priority setting and policy advocacy by nursing associations: A scoping review and implications using a socio-ecological whole systems lens

“…On the other hand, heterogeneity among members contributed to tensions, exacerbated internal conflicts, lowered levels of participation, and created delays in the fruition of policies. Divisiveness that accompanied diversity was particularly noted in the nursing literature [67,[80][81][82][84][85][86][87][88][89].…”

“…Both bodies of literature reported that the inclusion of members in policy decisions and actions ensured selected policy issues had meaning for the public served [26,48,76,[90][91][92] and for members [16,36,37,85,86,90,92,93]. Members were also viewed as critical to the work accomplished by organizations, as they served as champions for their organizations' cause(s) [48,82,94].…”

“…Government restructuring, receptivity, or interest, demonstrated ministerial support [54,59,65,79,86,89,90,103], and public demand or needs [48,76,79,85] were suggestive of supportive environments that inspired enhanced responses. Media attention gave greater political urgency to policy issues [64], while anniversaries of milestones (e.g., Earth Day), the release of key documents such as government reports or research, governmental elections, and the introduction of legislations were used as opportunities to remind governments about organizations' policy positions [57,60,86,90].…”

“…Media attention gave greater political urgency to policy issues [64], while anniversaries of milestones (e.g., Earth Day), the release of key documents such as government reports or research, governmental elections, and the introduction of legislations were used as opportunities to remind governments about organizations' policy positions [57,60,86,90]. Health and social reforms signaled opportunities for organizations to step up efforts for a policy concern [27,30,39,51,58,[84][85][86]89,103]. Increased actions were also motivated by invitations from political leaders, who sometimes solicited involvement from organizations that could bring expertise and deter backlash aimed at the government [54].…”

“…In these cases, organizations reacted by taking action for a new policy or changing their course of action [36,65,85,92]. Environmental catastrophes, such as oil spills, instigated changes in beliefs, values, rules, and players leading to opportunities to address new or emerging policy issue [60].…”