Comparative Study On The Legal System Of Nurse Administration Between China And US

Objective The purpose of this study was to obtain the difference in legal system of nurse administration between China and US with the method of comparative study. We sought to give some suggestion to the development of legal system of nurse administration in China by analysis of the differences along with nursing development order and the country reality.Methods With the rationale of comparative study of law, on the basis of literature study, field research and expert interview, this study planned to collect and arrange relevant information on the legal system of nurse administration between the two countries to determine comparative essentials. By applying the Bereday. G four-step comparative method, we described, interpreted, arranged in parallel and compared the legal system of nurse administration between two counties.Description included regulation on nurse's registration and admission, nursing practice scope, nurse right and obligation, nurse authority as well as violation and penalties of nurses and organization. Interpretation was to inducing the characteristics of the legal system between these two countries. Arrangement was made in list form to compare the legal system in order to find the differences. Comparison was to analysis the same point and the differences between China and US by considering nursing development levels and social-economic condition.Results China and the US legal system of nurse administration maintain common point in the following areas:they both have set up specifically legal system for nurse administration and established stringent admission and registration system for nurses. The regulation of nurse rights and obligations, responsibilities of nurse administration organization as well as violation and penalties for nurses and relevant organization had also been made. The differences between china and US on legal system of nurse administration include:1)Registration and admission of nurse:The US implement different registration levels of nurses, regulate the registration and admission of APRN and require a certain nursing practice time for license renewal.In China, there is only one registration level of nurse and no legal rules has been made although we planed to initial nurse specialist.,there is no nursing practice time limit for license renewal.2) In the regulation of nursing practice scope, US "Nurse Practice Act" determined different scopes for different nurse levels and also clearly standardize the employment of APRN.In our country, there is no regulation of nursing practice scope can be found in Nurse Rules, only in departmental rules and regulations the provisions of different responsibility was made in accordance with job titles and post.3) In the legal regulation of nurse organizations, US have rules about the staff, the daily work and the responsibility of the nurse board, which is the authority of nursing administration. In China, for different organizations in charge of nurse administration, the right and responsibility of these organizations are not issued clearly enough for practice. Meanwhile, differences can be found in the definition of right and obligation of nurse between two countries. The legislation level and content of regulations in the aspect of nurse-patient ratio are also different.Conclusion According to the differences between China and US on the nurse registration and admission system, the regulation of the scope of nursing practice, the authorities of nurse administration and the nurse-patient ratio, with analyzing the development levels of nursing practice, nursing education, the legal system, social concepts and other relevant elements, we suggest that the Chinese legal system of nurse administration should: legislation to establish a hierarchical system of nurse registration as well as nurse specialist admission and registration system.To improve the legal regulation on the scope of nursing practice, standardize assistant nurses employment and the responsibilities of nurse administration authorities. To improve the regulation for nurse patient ratio.