The Texas Board of Nursing (BON) was established in 1909 by the legislature. For over one hundred years, the board has been regulating nursing practice to ensure safe care delivery in the region. Some of the functions of the BON include protecting the public from unsafe nursing practice, issuing licenses to newly graduated nurses after administering an examination, providing practice and education guidance to nurses in Texas, providing approval for nursing education programs in the region, and endorsing nursing licensees from other states who are seeking the Texas license. The board has tools and resources that it uses to adhere to the guiding principles proposed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).
The BON has the tools and resources that it uses to carry out its responsibilities and services. The responsibilities and services offered by the board include the enforcement of rules and regulations, licensing, school approval, and provision of information. The board has the authority to issue licenses to freshly graduated nurses and nurses licensed from other states who would like to seek the Texas licenses. For the new nurses, the tool used by the board is an exam that is administered to determine their qualifications (Walsh & Hendrickson, 2015). There are adequate resources needed to administer the exams. Another resource is the authority to approve schools of nursing after verifying whether the schools qualify to offer nursing education in Texas.
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The BON has a responsibility to enforce nursing rules and regulations and the Nursing Practice Act in Texas. The board have the tools and resources such as the legal authority, funds, and personnel for the enforcement (Russell, 2012). The board sets standards for nursing education and practice, the conduct investigations and adjudicates complaints. Information from the BON is provided through verbal, written, and electronic channels. The tools used in this regard include the Nursing Practice Act, guidelines, position statements of the board, and the BON rules. All these are available on the board’s website (Walsh & Hendrickson, 2015).
All these tools and resources are useful in ensuring that the Texas Board of Nursing complies with the six guiding principles that maintain nursing competence according to the NCSBN (Schoenly, Crean & Hamilton, 2017). For example, there is the tool of rules and guidelines within which nurses in Texas must operate. This tool helps to ensure that the public is protected from any unsafe nursing practice. The tool also ensures that there are due processes and ethical decision-making in nursing practice (Russell, 2012). Another tool is the authority to administer exams and issue licenses. One of the principles of NCSBN is to ensure competence for all practitioners regulated by the board. The tool makes it possible to ensure that all practicing nurses are competent and qualified in whatever they do.
The Texas BON issues license to qualified nurses. For one to qualify for licensure in Texas, the following basic requirements are needed: One must graduate and pass the NCLEX exam for the initial license, a nurse with license from another state must get endorsement by the board after proving that he/she has met the set standards, or being an advanced practice registered nurse. To get the endorsement, one must be a graduate of an approved licensed practical nurse or RN program; one must have taken an appropriate US exam, and either worked as a nurse or taken the NCLEX exam within the last four years.
The Nurse Licensure Compact is now improved to the ‘enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact’ (eNLC). The model allows RNs and vocational nurses to have a uniform multistate license. The license allows nurses to practice in all eNLC states without further requirements (Schoenly et al., 2017). Texas implemented the eNLC in January 2018. Therefore, my state recognizes the licensure compact and allows nurses with it from other states to practice within Texas.
- Russell, K. A. (2012). Nurse practice acts guide and govern nursing practice. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 3(3), 36-42.
- Schoenly, L., Crean, H. J., & Hamilton, P. M. (2017). Nursing Jurisprudence and Ethics for Texas.
- Walsh, D., & Hendrickson, S. G. (2015). Focusing on the “T” in LGBT: An online survey of related content in Texas nursing programs. Journal of Nursing Education, 54(6), 347-351.
