Scope of practice

Scope of practice defines the procedures and decisions a professional is legally and practically authorized to perform. It is shaped by professional training, law, regulation, and workplace policy.

Professional licensure: Legal authorization from a government body to practice a regulated profession. Licensure establishes the legal threshold for performing regulated professional work.
Statute: A written law enacted by a legislative body. Statutes often establish the legal powers and limits of regulated professions.
Competence: The ability to perform a task successfully, based on relevant knowledge and skill. Being capable of a task does not itself grant legal authority to perform it.
Nurse practitioner: An advanced practice registered nurse who provides clinical care, with authority varying by jurisdiction. Nurse practitioner prescribing and practice authority illustrate jurisdiction-specific scope boundaries.
Professional regulation: Rules and oversight governing entry into and conduct within a profession. Regulators define and enforce many profession-wide limits on authorized work.
Professional practice act: A statute defining a regulated profession's licensing requirements, powers, and restrictions. This legislation commonly spells out a profession's legally recognized scope.
Job description: An employer's summary of a position's duties and responsibilities. A job description assigns workplace duties but cannot independently authorize legally restricted practice.
Physician assistant: A licensed clinician who practices medicine as part of a healthcare team under jurisdiction-specific rules. Physician assistant duties show how supervision and statutory limits shape clinical scope.
Professional competence: The knowledge, skills, judgment, and conduct needed to perform professional work safely and effectively. A task can exceed an individual's competence even when it falls within the profession's formal scope.
Professional licensing board: A government-authorized body that licenses and disciplines members of a profession. Boards interpret practice laws and may issue rules that clarify permitted activities.

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