TA04

The power to practice: development of an opinion database related to scope of practice for New York state registered nurses

Warren G. Hawkes, AHIP, Director, Library/Records Management, New York State Nurses Association, Latham, NY ;

Objective: To create a database of opinions from government agencies and professional associations that specifically address the parameters of practice for registered nurses in New York state.
Methods: The New York State Nurses Association is the professional association for registered nurses in New York. The association receives thousands of queries a year about the RN's ability to perform specific procedures/tasks under the broad law regulating the practice of nursing in New York. A database was created of governmental agency and professional association opinions addressing these scope of practice questions. Utilizing a Lotus Notes interface, documents were scanned in using both OCR and a TIFF format. This process provides full-text search capability, as well as, retrieval of original document images. Regular review and evaluation of opinions is completed to ensure the validity of the database and assure the legality of specific nursing practices.

Warren Hawkes, has worked as Assistant Librarian and later Director of the library for the New York State Nurses Association for over 25 years.  In addition he has served as President of the Interagency Council on Information Resources for Nursing, and Chair of both the MLA Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section and Upstate New York and Ontario Chapter of MLA.