Although nursing is a health-care profession, and nurses are required to have clinical skills in order to practise, the law establishes expectations that must be met. When a health-care professional such as a nurse fails to meet these standards, the law can intervene in a number of ways that can have very significant consequences.

For example, in 2011 a six-year-old boy named Jack was admitted to the Children’s Assessment Unit at Leicester Hospital in England around 10.30 a.m. Jack had Down syndrome and a known heart condition. He had been suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea, and had difficulty breathing. He was cared for by a trainee paediatrician, Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba, and nursing staff, including Ms Isabel Amaro. Jack died that evening from an infection. His death was immediately reported to the Coroner.

In accordance with the standards for nursing and midwifery education, training and assessment, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) requires students to engage in professional placement experiences as part of an accredited program of undergraduate study, with mandatory hours of activity linked to successful learning outcomes and registration to practise as a nurse in Australia (ANMAC 2017, Ford et al. 2016, Schwartz 2019). Clinical placements are therefore a central component of nursing education, complementing the theoretical foundations and simulation-based learning provided at university.

Preparing you for professional practice is the overarching goal of nursing education. Your success in professional experience placements depends on your ability to effectively draw upon and translate your learning to the clinical practice context and environment. This chapter provides specific information and strategies to help you to better understand and succeed in the clinical practice component of your degree program. The chapter also introduces the rapidly expanding role of social media in nursing education and practice.

This chapter looks at the professional roles Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and health practitioners play in the industry. It begins by looking at how the Indigenous health worker role evolved as a way to bridge the gap between Indigenous patients and healthcare professionals, and their role in contemporary medical settings. It considers the nursing and midwifery guidelines and frameworks that regulate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and health practitioners and provide guidance for collaboration with other healthcare workers. It concludes by discussing the challenges and opportunities of interprofessional practice when providing culturally safe care to Indigenous patients.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are well placed to provide an alternate source of primary health care offering increased accessibility and consumer choice, particularly for those in rural and subregional communities (Kelly et al., 2017). They have the capacity and capability to provide high-quality, effective and efficient clinically focused health care delivery in a variety of contexts (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018). Recognised as advanced practice nurses internationally and nationally, the NP role has emerged as a potential response to meet the challenges of rising health care demand and is proving effective in promoting transformational changes within the primary health care sector (Contandriopoulos et al., 2016; Grant et al., 2017; Gray, 2016). The concluding chapter of this text discusses the key attributes that contribute to the uniqueness of the NP's role, discusses the scope of practice and key functions of the primary care NP, and provides an understanding of career progression for nurses considering the NP role within the Australian context.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are well placed to provide an alternate source of primary health care offering increased accessibility and consumer choice, particularly for those in rural and subregional communities (Kelly et al., 2017). They have the capacity and capability to provide high-quality, effective and efficient clinically focused health care delivery in a variety of contexts (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018). Recognised as advanced practice nurses internationally and nationally, the NP role has emerged as a potential response to meet the challenges of rising health care demand and is proving effective in promoting transformational changes within the primary health care sector (Contandriopoulos et al., 2016; Grant et al., 2017; Gray, 2016). The concluding chapter of this text discusses the key attributes that contribute to the uniqueness of the NP's role, discusses the scope of practice and key functions of the primary care NP, and provides an understanding of career progression for nurses considering the NP role within the Australian context.

In this Chapter we will focus more on what law is in general, and on some of the basic philosophical and legal principles that make up the Australian legal system. Accordingly, this Chapter will briefly introduce the main features of the Australian legal system, including: the different parts or ‘arms’ of the Government; the sources of law; and some key features of different branches of law relevant to nursing. A basic knowledge of the legal system is fundamental to understanding the law as it applies to nursing practice. Indeed, the very first principle of the Code of conduct for nurses requires that ‘Nurses respect and adhere to their professional obligations under the National Law, and abide by relevant laws’ (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2018). This Chapter will look at this aspect of the role of law in nursing through a discussion of a nurse’s ‘scope of practice’.