Glossary

A registered nurse who guides, counsels and/or teaches nurse learners (mentees) in their adjustment to new environments, roles and/or responsibilities.

Mentoring is a supportive and collaborative relationship in which a more experienced nurse (mentor) provides guidance, counsel, and teaching to a less experienced nurse, nursing student, or other healthcare professional to facilitate professional growth and development.

Process of reducing risk exposure and minimizing the likelihood of an incident.

In health care, the implicit and explicit values that drive health-care delivery and shape the workplaces in which care is delivered.

A workplace where values are made clear and are shared, where these values direct ethical action and where individuals feel safe to be heard. Coherence between publicly professed values and the lived reality is necessary for there to be a genuine moral community.

An entry-level nursing education plan intended for admitting students and requiring preliminary approval status from NANB prior to enrolling students.

A not-for-profit organization independent from governmental organizations.

Interventions intended to improve the health or the well-being of individuals that do not involve the use of any drugs or medicine. They aim to prevent, treat, or cure health problems.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses who have additional education and nursing experience. NPs are advanced practice nurses with graduate education, which enables them to: autonomously diagnose and treat illnesses; order and interpret tests; prescribe medications; and perform medical procedures. NPs are health-care professionals who treat the whole person, an approach that includes: addressing needs relating to a person’s physical and mental health; gathering medical history; focusing on how an illness affects a person’s life and family; offering ways for a person to lead a healthy life; and teaching persons how to manage chronic illness. NPs are also educators and researchers who can be consulted by other health-care team members.

The terms nurse and registered nurse include registered nurses and/or nurses who are registered or licensed in extended roles, such as nurse practitioners.

Nursing informatics science and practice integrates nursing, its information and knowledge, and their management, with information and communication technologies to promote the health of people, families, and communities worldwide.

Actions that are part of the nursing care plan that are performed to allow clients to reach expected outcomes, such as providing physical treatments, emotional support and client education.

The application of specialized, evidence‑based knowledge drawn from nursing theory and the health and human sciences, including the principles of primary health care. It encompasses roles in clinical practice, research, education, consultation, management, administration, policy development, and regulation.

A scientific method used by nurses to ensure the quality of client care. This approach can be broken down into four separate steps: assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation.

Outline the baseline and expectations for quality care and best practices and establish measures to evaluate the care provided.

An unearned disadvantage when a particular social group is unjustly subordinated, resulting from a complex network of social restrictions, ranging from laws and institutions to implicit (i.e. unconscious) biases and stereotypes.

Member held assumptions and values about their organization that is different form one organization to the next.

An approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment, and treatment of pain and other problems (e.g., physical, psychosocial and spiritual).

Refers to situations in which the nurse works with the client and other members of the health care team to achieve specific health outcomes for the client. Partnership implies consensus building in the determination of these outcomes.

“An event or circumstance which could have resulted, or did result, in unnecessary harm to a patient.” It may be a harmful incident, a no-harm incident or a near miss.

An individual, family, group, community, population or system that accesses the services of the nurse; may also be referred to as a client(s), resident(s) or patient(s).

Point-of-care testing (POCT) refers to diagnostic tests performed at or near the patient’s location by health care professional or other qualified personnel. It can include tests conducted by the patient themselves at home or a community setting.

All people sharing a common health issue, problem or characteristic. These people may or may not come together as a group.

An approach to health that aims to improve the health of the entire population (all people) and to reduce health inequities among population groups. In order to reach these objectives, it looks at and acts upon the broad range of factors and conditions that have a strong influence on our health.

The assumed authority or influence a person holds over others by virtue of the title of his or her position. Power exercised in correlation with the perceived level of a position relative to others in the organization.

The nurse-client relationship is one of unequal power, resulting from clients’ dependence on the services provided by nurses, as well as nurses’ unique knowledge, authority within the healthcare system, access to privileged information about clients, and ability to influence decisions. This power imbalance can place clients in a position of vulnerability and potential abuse if trust in the nurse-client relationship is not respected. It is the nurse’s responsibility to recognize this imbalance of power and to be aware of the potential for clients to feel intimidated and/or dependent.

The understanding that people have multiple identities and make meaning of the world from the various aspects of their background and identities (gender, race, language, ability, etc.). These differences in social position and power shape individual and collective identities, as well as worldviews.

The nurse-client relationship is one of unequal power, stemming from the authority associated with their position in the healthcare system, specialized knowledge, influence with other healthcare providers in the decision-making process, and access to privileged information. In any professional-client relationship, there is an imbalance of power in favour of the professional, which is further reinforced in healthcare services by the vulnerability of a client needing care. A misuse of power can be considered client abuse.

A power of attorney is a legal document created to allow someone, or perhaps different people, the authority to act for you in relation to your property, financial affairs and/or personal care.

Practising nurse members shall be those persons whose names are entered in the register and who have complied with the requirements* of and have paid the fees set out in the by-laws and the rules

*See BYLAWS, Nurses Association of New Brunswick sections 1.02 (General Requirements for First Registration) and 1.03 D & E (Practising Nurse membership and Registration).

An educational program with admission criteria for graduates from a health-related discipline (for example, LPN). Students adhere to a structured program designed to support them meeting the educational requirements that satisfy NANB’s entry-to-practice competencies for RNs The duration of study for the PHEES depends on the type of program. Upon program completion, the successful student is granted a nursing baccalaureate degree (BN).