Department of Regulatory Nursing Guidelines
Setting professional standards – and enforcing their implementation in the healthcare system
This department sets professional standards by laying down guidelines and control measures. It also acts to improve the treatment quality and safety through all therapeutic settings.
Position holders
Director of the Department of Regulatory Nursing Guidelines
Dr. Hagar Baruch
Director of the Nursing Competence and Quality Array
Ms. Keren Mikdash
Director of the Nursing Standards and Protocols Array
Ms. Tamar Keynan
Director of the Certification Branch
Ms. Natalie Cohen
Director of the Licensure Examinations Branch
Ms. Einav Yosef
The department's e-mail:
hanhayot.mikzoeiot@MOH.GOV.IL
The activities of the Department of Regulatory Nursing Guidelines
The Department of Regulatory Nursing Guidelines is responsible for setting and upholding required professional standards for nurses in the State of Israel, through professional guidelines and their control measures.
The roles of the department
- Setting the boundaries of the professional work.
- Developing professional guidelines in fields that are required for improving the quality of the nursing care and for keeping patients safe.
- Placing controls for the introduction and implementation of standards.
- Defining nurses' competence according to the various levels of the profession.
- Ensuring that nurses' range of activities and professional powers conform to their education and to the changing needs of the patients and the healthcare system.
- Assuming responsibility for processing requests and complaints related to nurses' activities and professional competence in review committees, disciplinary committees and medical committees.
Professional guidelines constitute a binding framework for the nurse's work based on the assessment of social, technological and legal changes.
The guidelines differentiate between the various levels of nurses' training and set professional boundaries for each level, as well as setting professional boundaries for registered nurses who work in unique fields. The guidelines are in place to ensure high quality and safe treatment, and increase the nurses' commitment toward their patients and toward their profession. The guidelines are being updated to meet the healthcare system's changing needs.
The development of professional guidelines includes the following stages:
- The field and subject are selected.
- Consultant committees are appointed and tasked with consulting the National Head Nurse on the selected field.
- The members of the committee conduct an extensive literature review and collect reference materials on this subject.
- The members of the committee draft a proposal for a professional guideline.
- The expected financial costs of the professional guideline are reviewed.
- The ability to implement the professional guideline is reviewed.
- Professional and inter-professional consensus is reached.
- The professional guideline is circulated for comments by on-the-scene practitioners.
- The Ministry of Health's Director General approves the professional guideline.
- The professional guideline is circulated.
Professional guidelines are being updated to meet the healthcare system's needs as they arise.
Professional guidelines are classified according to three main fields:
Guidelines in the field of treatment - examples (Hebrew)
- Conditions for the implementation of nursing activities that have been defined by the Director General's Circular 09/2007 dated 17.09.07 (Nursing Division Circular No. 70).
- The Patient's Rights Law. Nurses' professional duty is to familiarize themselves with the Patient's Rights Law and to follow the principles and rules of conduct that the implementation of the Law requires.
- Every single nurse in the State of Israel is required to learn and implement the Patient's Rights Law (Nursing Division's Circular No. 24).
- Pain assessment. The guideline defines the registered nurse's powers and responsibilities in assessing, preventing and treating pain, both in a hospital setting and in the community (Nursing Division Circular No. 155).
- Administration of medication. The guideline determines the procedure by which nurses administer medications during routine times, and the power of the registered nurse to make decisions in this regard (Nursing Division Circular No. 117).
Guidelines in the field of administration - examples (Hebrew)
- Absorption of a nurse in a care unit – The absorption of a nurse in a care unit is a significant stage in his or her professional and social integration in the organization. This guideline requires that the absorption of a new nurse will be overseen by an absorbing nurse, who is an academic nurse or a registered nurse, in a planned and organized manner (Nursing Division's Circular No. 21).
- Filling the position of a nurse shift manager in wards, clinics and care units (general and special), both in a hospital setting and in the community. The guideline updates and specifies the wards, clinics and special care units in which the position of a nurse shift manager must be filled by a registered nurse who is a graduate of an accredited continuing education program in a relevant field (Nursing Division's Circular No. 177).
- A "facilitating" change-of-shift handoff constitutes a critical stage in which the responsibility for the management and operation of the department is handed over from the nursing team that is about to end its shift to the nursing team that is about to begin its shift (Nursing Division's Circular No. 151).
- Realizing the functional potential of the nurse in the hospital and community array (Nursing Division's Circular No. 144).
- Information regarding the legal status of nurses in Israel (Hebrew)
- Information regarding nursing activities and exceptional activities (Hebrew)