RN Work Differences: United Kingdom vs United States, Canada & Australia

What changes when a nurse from United Kingdom enters a new clinical system? #

Your nursing experience in the United Kingdom remains valuable. A new clinical system can change who authorizes an activity, how teams communicate, where decisions are recorded and who follows up. Compare those processes in the actual receiving service rather than assuming that a country name determines every nurse’s role.

An American hospital, an Ontario community service and an Australian aged-care setting are different transitions. This guide identifies regulatory starting points and practical orientation questions. Named provincial examples apply to that province; local escalation routes, records and competency assessments still need to be established.

Map a familiar task to the destination's registration category, jurisdiction, authorizing mechanism and competence requirements. Then establish the team's communication and documentation expectations. Use a concrete orientation answer rather than a country ranking.

Educational origin does not establish individual competence, and passing a registration examination does not authorize every procedure. Use NCLEX preparation to strengthen reasoning, then use supervised employer orientation to establish your actual responsibilities, systems and workflow.

Sources: NCSBN — Scope of Practice Decision-Making Framework · College of Nurses of Ontario — Scope of Practice · Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia — Registered nurse standards for practice

RN work differences at a glance #

Across the comparison systems, do not assume that receiving an order answers every scope question, or that being licensed proves competence with every device. Use the comparison as an entry point into the relevant authority. The practical next step is to identify the exact jurisdiction and employer rather than treating a national label as a complete job description.

When someone describes a nurse as autonomous, ask what decision they mean. Assessing a patient's nursing needs, choosing among authorized nursing interventions, prescribing a medication and authorizing another worker to perform a restricted activity are different decisions. They cannot responsibly be compressed into a single high-or-low score. A confident RN can recognize a limit and obtain help without giving up responsibility for the patient's nursing care.

Role initials need their jurisdiction. In Ontario, RPN means registered practical nurse; in British Columbia it means registered psychiatric nurse. These are distinct regulated roles. Ask which designation and responsibilities apply to the colleague on your team rather than transferring a familiar abbreviation between provinces.

Sources: NCSBN — About U.S. Nursing Regulatory Bodies · College of Nurses of Ontario — Scope of Practice · Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia — Endorsements and Notations · BCCNM — BCCNM: Registered psychiatric nurses · BCCNM — BCCNM: Scope of practice · Nursing and Midwifery Council — The Code

The professional starting point in United Kingdom #

The NMC Code organizes professional responsibilities around prioritising people, practising effectively, preserving safety and promoting professionalism and trust. Its expectations include clear communication, accurate records, competence, safe delegation and escalation of concerns. The Code does not make every nurse a prescriber, and it should not be treated as a complete procedure-permission list.

Nurses, midwives and nursing associates are distinct registration categories. Prescribing requires the relevant additional qualification and register status. Consent, capacity and other legal duties also require the applicable law in the United Kingdom nation where you work. Familiarity with a hospital’s previous policy is not a substitute for that check.

For a move to the United States, identify the state nursing board. For Canada, identify the province or territory. For Australia, distinguish NMBA registration from local medicines law and employer governance. An NMC registration and a destination registration are different checks. This guide focuses on nursing work and orientation, rather than claiming that one examination or application establishes every clinical permission.

Bring examples of how you explain an assessment, delegate safely, clarify an instruction and document follow-up. Translate role labels as well as vocabulary. A band, grade or senior job title does not automatically map to a particular destination registration category. Explain the responsibility you held and the clinical context that supported it.

An effective transition exercise is to compare one ordinary handover. Identify which facts you would report, the person who accepts responsibility and the unresolved tasks that need a named owner. Then rehearse that conversation using the receiving team’s format. Clear communication is useful across systems, while the legal and organizational mechanism still belongs to the actual destination.

Sources: Nursing and Midwifery Council — The Code

Assessment: own the reasoning, learn the local record #

Picture an admission assessment that contains every required field but does not explain why the patient needs closer observation. Completing a form and forming a defensible nursing assessment are different accomplishments. In an orientation exercise, practise connecting the information you obtained with a priority, an action within your authority and a plan for reassessment. Then find where each part belongs in the employer's record.

Ask your preceptor to show how a new finding becomes visible to other clinicians. A local system might use a structured assessment, a care-plan entry, a progress note, a handover field or several linked locations. These are examples of possible record designs, not a claim that one country charts in one particular way. Learn the employer's source of truth so that a clinically important finding is not stranded in your personal notes.

A useful learning exercise is to compare two versions of the same statement. 'Patient uncomfortable' tells the next nurse little. A more informative account identifies what the patient reported, what you observed, when it changed, which action or communication followed and what happened afterward. Do not invent observations or insert a diagnosis you are not authorized to make. Use the patient's words and your assessment precisely enough that another clinician can understand the concern.

Assessment ownership also includes noticing what is missing. If a handover says that a result needs follow-up, establish who will follow it, where it will appear and what the local escalation process requires. Merely repeating 'result pending' at the end of the shift does not show that someone has accepted the responsibility. During supervised practice, ask your preceptor to demonstrate a closed handover of an unresolved task.

Sources: College of Nurses of Ontario — Documentation · Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia — Registered nurse standards for practice

Medication workflow: an order is the beginning of a check #

During orientation, follow one medication from the prescribing instruction to the patient's response. Locate the order, the allergy information, the medication record, any required independent check, the monitoring plan and the route for resolving a discrepancy. You are mapping the employer's actual workflow. Do not assume that a familiar package, a familiar screen or an instruction from a colleague removes the need to understand your own responsibility.

Ontario's CNO medication standard describes authority, competence and safety, including the need to address unclear, incomplete or inappropriate orders. An Ontario example should not be rewritten as a law for every Canadian province. For a United States placement, determine which state rules and employer medication policies apply. For Australia, determine the applicable medicines law and service requirements. In your home jurisdiction, use the nursing law and relevant current employer procedures rather than a social-media summary.

Consider a fictional exercise in which a medication appears in a handover list but you cannot find a corresponding current instruction in the approved record. Your task in the exercise is not to guess whether the medication should be administered. It is to identify the discrepancy, explain it clearly, locate the authorized clarification pathway and confirm what should happen next. The same question can be practised with your preceptor without inventing a patient's treatment plan.

Administering and prescribing are distinct. Ontario's RN prescribing pathway has education, authorization, medication and setting limits. Australia's designated RN prescriber model requires NMBA endorsement, an employer-approved active agreement with an authorised health practitioner, clinical governance and applicable state or territory law. Government guidance describes six months of clinical mentorship after endorsement. Neither pathway belongs automatically to every RN. Avoid both blanket claims that RNs never prescribe and assumptions that ordinary registration permits unrestricted prescribing.

Build your learning plan around the most likely points of confusion. Examples include how a verbal clarification is recorded, how a changed instruction becomes active, what happens when a barcode or device alert disagrees with your assessment, and where to document a dose that was not administered. These are employer-specific questions. Do not silence an alert, reinterpret a prescription or substitute a workaround merely because a previous workplace used a different process.

Sources: College of Nurses of Ontario — Medication · College of Nurses of Ontario — Registered Nurse (RN) Prescribing · Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia — Endorsements and Notations · Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Designated Registered Nurse Prescribing

Team roles, assignment and delegation #

Your first question about a colleague should be what their role means in this workplace, not what their title resembles in a previous country. A practical nurse, enrolled nurse, assistant or support worker may have responsibilities defined by registration, education and local policy. Do not make a task list by assuming that similarly named roles have identical authority. Likewise, the presence of support staff does not by itself show how a unit divides care.

NCSBN distinguishes assignment and delegation and describes responsibilities involving the employer, delegating nurse and person receiving the activity. Ontario also distinguishes an order from delegation of a controlled act. These terms are not interchangeable. A doctor's instruction to an RN and an RN's decision about another worker require different questions. For Australia, NMBA standards discuss delegation and supervision within accountable practice. Use the relevant local rule for the activity instead of treating an exam mnemonic as the legal answer.

Practise with a fictional transfer task. Before asking a colleague to help, identify the patient's current needs, the activity, the worker's role and competence, and the available support. Explain what information should be reported, how to contact you and what to do if the situation changes. The exercise is about making responsibility explicit; it does not establish a universal permission to delegate mobility, assessment or any other activity.

Now change one detail: the patient reports a new symptom immediately before the task begins. Ask your preceptor how that change affects the proposed assignment and whether a new nursing assessment is needed. The most useful orientation discussion is often the boundary case. Learning who normally completes a task is less informative than learning when that usual arrangement is no longer appropriate.

Follow-up matters as much as the initial instruction. A colleague may complete an activity but report a finding that requires a nursing response. Agree how findings are returned and how completion is confirmed. If you are unsure whether someone accepted an activity, ask rather than assuming that a casual conversation transferred responsibility. If workload or competence makes an instruction unsafe, use the local escalation process to resolve it.

For your personal transition notes, create a team map with roles, contacts and examples of collaboration. Keep patient information out of that personal learning document. Include the charge nurse or equivalent, your preceptor, relevant regulated nurses, support workers and the multidisciplinary contacts you will actually use. Check the map with the team rather than publishing it as the standard structure of an entire country.

Sources: NCSBN — Delegation · College of Nurses of Ontario — Understanding Orders, Directives and Delegation: FAQs · Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia — Registered nurse standards for practice

Documentation and technology: learn where decisions live #

There is no responsible shortcut that labels home-workplace records as paper and destination records as electronic. Facilities differ. The task is to learn the record your own employer uses, including how it separates observations, orders, administration, care planning and communication. Ask for supervised practice in a training environment before handling unfamiliar screens independently. A visually familiar interface may organize information differently from one you used before.

Ontario's documentation standard is an example of professional expectations for clear, accurate and complete records. The useful transition question is how those expectations are implemented locally. Where do you record a patient's own account? Where does a new concern appear? What is the approved process for correcting a mistake or recording care later? Do not invent a timestamp, copy forward information without checking it, or use another person's identity to make an entry.

Prepare two distinct learning products. One is an employer-approved record of actual patient care. The other is a personal study note about a workflow, containing no patient identifiers or confidential information. The fact that a learning app is convenient does not make it an authorized clinical record. Before using personal devices, messaging tools or external services, establish the employer's privacy and security requirements.

An orientation drill can expose information gaps without involving a real patient. Use a fictional note that says a clinician was contacted. Ask what another nurse would still need to know: the concern raised, the time, the response, the instruction or plan, and who should follow up. Improve the note in the training environment. The purpose is to make your reasoning and the agreed next step understandable, not to produce a longer note for its own sake.

Documentation is also a handover tool. If an unresolved concern is recorded in a place the receiving nurse does not routinely see, ask how it is highlighted. Conversely, an oral handover does not tell you where the corresponding authorized instruction is stored. Learn both routes. When an electronic system is unavailable, use the employer's downtime process and find out how temporary information is reconciled afterward.

Sources: College of Nurses of Ontario — Documentation · Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care — Communicating for Safety Standard

Communication: be precise without becoming formulaic #

A change of workplace can make familiar knowledge harder to express. You may know what concerns you but be unsure which words the receiving clinician expects. Practise short messages that identify the patient safely through the approved process, state the immediate concern, give relevant context, explain your assessment and make a clear request. The goal is shared understanding, not an accent or memorized speech.

AHRQ's SBAR tool is one available structure for communicating a situation, background, assessment and recommendation. It is not evidence that every American facility requires that acronym, or that SBAR creates authority to carry out the requested action. Australian communicating-for-safety standards address reliable clinical communication at a service level. Learn the format and escalation route actually used by your employer, and keep the important information intact even if the local acronym differs.

Try a fictional call in which you are worried about a change but do not yet have a diagnosis. Start with the observable change and why it needs attention. Do not delay the initial request simply to make a polished explanation. Your preceptor can help distinguish what needs to be said immediately from what can be supplied as supporting information. In an urgent situation, follow the service's emergency pathway rather than a study script.

The message is not finished when you stop speaking. Confirm that the other person understood the concern and that you understood the response. Ask what should happen next, who will perform the action and when to seek further help if the situation remains unresolved. This can be practised in simulation without assuming that every country uses the same telephone, team hierarchy or response time.

For patient and family conversations, ask about the person's own language, preferences and understanding. Do not predict those needs from nationality or appearance. Establish the employer's interpreter arrangements and consent procedures. A willing family member and a qualified interpreter are not automatically interchangeable for every conversation. Clarify the local requirement, especially where decisions, confidentiality or complex information are involved.

Use RN Clarity's Floor Language page to rehearse wording, not to outsource a clinical decision. You might practise explaining that you need to clarify an instruction, introducing a handover or asking what still requires follow-up. Then compare the phrase with your employer's terminology. Being able to pronounce a sentence is useful; knowing when it is appropriate and what response it should produce is the deeper learning task.

Sources: AHRQ — Tool: SBAR · Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care — Communicating for Safety Standard

Deterioration: learn the route before you need it #

Before your first independent assignment, ask someone to demonstrate how this service obtains urgent help. Learn the activation method, the backup route, the information to provide and what happens if the first contact does not respond. Do not assume that a familiar emergency number, code word or rapid-response threshold applies in a new jurisdiction or facility. An unfamiliar route is a practical orientation gap that should be resolved before a real emergency.

Australia's NSQHS deterioration standard addresses systems for recognizing and responding to acute deterioration, including escalation. It is a health-service standard, not a universal instruction to use one numerical threshold or treatment. The home professional responsibilities and destination professional frameworks establish responsibilities, but the actual local response pathway still needs to be learned. Keep the distinction between a professional obligation to respond and the service's mechanism for doing so.

In a fictional training case, a patient's condition changes while you are completing an unrelated task. Explain which observations made you stop, what immediate support you sought, what information you communicated and how you kept the patient under appropriate observation. Do not invent a medication dose or device adjustment to make the exercise dramatic. Its purpose is to rehearse prioritization, communication and follow-up within authorized practice.

Ask how patient or family concerns reach the clinical team. Someone may describe a meaningful change before it appears in a routine record. Learn how the service captures that concern, who evaluates it and which pathway is available if it remains unresolved. This is not a claim that one nationality speaks up more than another. It is a question about whether the local system makes a person's concern actionable.

Also learn how escalation is closed. If help arrives, establish which clinician is coordinating care and what you remain responsible for. If a plan is agreed, record the relevant communication and continue the required reassessment. A call without a confirmed response can leave an important gap. During orientation, practise a situation in which the initial plan does not resolve the concern and identify the next authorized step.

Sources: Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care — Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration Standard

Safety, everyday care and continuity #

A workplace transition is not only about advanced devices. It also concerns how the team protects a person during ordinary care: moving, eating, washing, sleeping, toileting and preparing to leave the service. Ask how the care plan makes a person's current risks and preferences visible to everyone involved. Do not assume that an activity belongs to support staff everywhere, or that an RN must personally perform every component in every setting.

CDC's core infection-prevention guidance is a United States clinical guidance source covering standard precautions and related safety practices across healthcare settings. It does not establish the law of the other comparison countries. Use it as a dated source for the United States discussion, then locate the destination employer's current infection-control procedures. Learn how precautions are communicated when the patient moves between areas rather than relying on the presence of a sign or device alone.

Australia's comprehensive-care standard provides a service-level example of bringing assessment, risk management, shared planning and reassessment together. For orientation, ask how the patient participates in the care plan and how a change in risk reaches the people providing daily care. A completed screening field is not the same as an implemented plan. Find out who owns the next action and how the team checks whether it occurred.

Consider a fictional discharge in which the patient can repeat the medication names but cannot explain whom to contact with a problem. The teaching task is not finished by handing over a document. In simulation, practise checking understanding, identifying barriers and confirming where follow-up responsibility goes. Do not promise access to services or equipment without checking the actual arrangement. A proposed referral and an accepted referral are different stages.

Keep the patient's preferences separate from your assumptions about the family. Ask whom they want involved and use the locally applicable consent and confidentiality processes. Some people want extensive family participation; others prefer a different arrangement. Neither choice can be predicted by country. A useful transition skill is to ask respectfully, document the relevant preference and obtain help when the decision involves an unfamiliar legal or communication issue.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Core Infection Prevention and Control Practices for Safe Healthcare Delivery in All Settings · Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care — Comprehensive Care Standard · Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care — Communicating for Safety Standard

Same patient, four systems: what should your handover explain? #

This is a fictional learning scenario, not a real patient, a treatment protocol or a claim about mandatory national workflows. Alex, an adult admitted with respiratory symptoms, has a planned review and a medication question that has not yet been clarified. During the shift Alex reports feeling different from earlier. The example contains no treatment doses or numeric escalation thresholds. Its purpose is to compare how you identify responsibility, obtain authorized help and keep follow-up visible.

Home-system lens — United Kingdom: start with the NMC Code, nation-specific law and your recorded qualifications. Alex’s situation is fictional, but the orientation questions are practical: who can authorize the proposed activity, who responds to the change, and who owns the next review? Describe that route in your present service, then compare it with the exact destination service. Neither the scenario nor the country comparison supplies a treatment order.

Stage one is receiving responsibility. In the training exercise, the outgoing nurse says that a review is pending. Ask who requested it, what concern led to the request, where the relevant information is recorded and who will follow up. Repeat back the unresolved task in your own words. Your aim is not to criticize the outgoing nurse; it is to ensure that 'pending' has an identifiable next owner.

Stage two is making your own assessment. Alex's account may contain information that was not available during the earlier shift. Describe what you observe and what Alex tells you without filling gaps with a guessed diagnosis. Explain why the change affects your priorities. Ask your preceptor where that assessment belongs in the local record and how the team sees a new concern.

Stage three is resolving the medication question. Locate the current authorized instruction and the discrepancy that needs clarification. In Ontario, the order and medication frameworks are jurisdiction-specific sources for this discussion. In a United States service, establish the state and employer requirements. In Australia, check the relevant law and service process. In your home jurisdiction, apply the current local requirements alongside the professional framework. None of these versions rewards guessing which treatment Alex should receive.

Stage four is communicating the change. Practise a short message that starts with the concern and the support being requested. Use the employer's actual format; SBAR is an example of a communication tool, not a universal national requirement. Ask which pathway applies when the situation is urgent and which backup route is available if the first contact does not respond. The exercise is successful when the message leads to an understood next step.

Stage five is following the response. Suppose the appropriate clinician has reviewed Alex and communicated a plan in the fictional exercise. Establish where the authorized instruction is recorded, what you remain responsible for, and what finding would require renewed contact under the local pathway. Do not treat the arrival of another clinician as proof that all nursing follow-up has been transferred.

Stage six is handing over again. Explain the original concern, the change, completed actions, the response and anything unresolved. Separate an instruction that has been authorized from an action that has occurred. Separate a request for follow-up from acceptance of that responsibility. Ask the receiving nurse to clarify anything that is not understandable. This is a communication practice exercise rather than a nationally prescribed handover script.

Sources: NCSBN — Scope of Practice Decision-Making Framework · College of Nurses of Ontario — Understanding Orders, Directives and Delegation: FAQs · Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care — Recognising and Responding to Acute Deterioration Standard · AHRQ — Tool: SBAR · Nursing and Midwifery Council — The Code

Before your first shift: build an orientation map #

Make your preparation specific enough that a preceptor can check it. Write the jurisdiction, registration category, employer, service and proposed role at the top of your orientation map. Then list the work you expect to perform and mark which activities need further clarification or supervised assessment. Keep this map about workflows and learning needs, not confidential patient information.

Begin with urgent support. Know how to obtain immediate help, what to do if the first contact is unavailable and how responsibility is coordinated when help arrives. Rehearse the route in the training environment. Do not rely on a number remembered from another hospital or country. An orientation map that cannot answer an urgent-contact question is incomplete even if it contains many course certificates.

Next, map medication and procedure authority. Locate the current order or protocol, identify who can clarify it and find the employer's competency records. Distinguish activities you have independently performed from those you observed or undertook under supervision. Ask for a plan to assess the unfamiliar parts. Honest specificity protects both your patient and your professional credibility.

Then map the team. Learn the role of each colleague you regularly work with, the applicable assignment or delegation process, and how findings are reported back. Practise break coverage and transfer of an unresolved task. Do not assume a familiar abbreviation proves that someone can perform the same activities as a similarly named role in your previous workplace.

Finally, map the record and continuity process. Find where assessments, instructions, administration, communication and follow-up live. Learn the approved correction and downtime procedures. Trace a referral or discharge arrangement from request to acceptance. You should be able to tell the next nurse which work is complete, which is planned and which still needs a named person to respond.

A transition workbook for your United Kingdom nursing experience #

Start with your own practice in the United Kingdom, not a national stereotype. Pick three situations you can explain precisely: a routine assignment, a change in condition and a disagreement about an instruction. For each, record the information you collected, the action you personally performed and the communication you used. Keep the examples de-identified. A receiving preceptor should be able to distinguish what you did from what another professional did.

For the routine assignment, draw four boxes: assessment, plan, action and evaluation. Write the actual responsibility in each box. Then add a separate line for authorization. Was an activity within your nursing role, dependent on an instruction, or part of a specifically governed arrangement? If you are unsure, leave that line as a question for the regulator or employer rather than filling it with a guess. The exercise is an account of experience, not a new authorization document.

For the change in condition, rehearse the first call in plain language. Say what changed, how you know, what concerns you and what response you need. Then rehearse the second call if the first contact is unavailable. Ask the destination preceptor where this sequence is documented and how the next observer knows a review is still pending. A handover that names the next owner is more useful than a record of several unanswered messages.

For the unclear instruction, identify the exact uncertainty. The problem might be missing information, an inconsistent record, an unfamiliar device or a change in the patient. Those are different questions and can require different people to resolve them. Practise asking a precise question without blaming a colleague or inventing a treatment choice. Confirm the resolved instruction through the local approved process and describe the resulting action and follow-up accurately.

Now compare the same three situations with the receiving service. Keep what transfers: observation, reasoning, respectful communication and attention to outcomes. Mark what needs local learning: a registration condition, a particular authorization, a charting sequence or an escalation number. Mark what needs supervised demonstration: a device, a specialty activity or a skill you have not recently performed. These categories produce an actionable orientation plan.

Bring the plan to a preceptor and ask for a realistic sequence. Which items must be established before your first assignment? Which can be learned under supervision? Which require a separate course or assessment? Record the agreed preparation and how completion will be demonstrated. Do not treat attendance at orientation as proof of competence in every activity. A useful plan identifies the evidence needed for the actual role.

After a supervised shift, return to one of the three situations. Compare your expected workflow with what happened. If a task remained unresolved, identify where ownership became unclear and what communication would have made it clearer. Reflect on the process rather than labelling yourself or the whole clinical system as good or bad. A small, specific improvement is easier to practise and evaluate than a broad promise to be more confident.

Sources: Nursing and Midwifery Council — The Code

Six shortcuts that can mislead a transition nurse #

Shortcut one is to equate a country with a single scope. Replace it with the exact jurisdiction, registration category, activity and setting. The United States and Canada require a jurisdiction-specific answer; Australia still requires applicable law and local context alongside national registration. A home-country example also needs the current service and competency context.

Shortcut two is to equate an order with competence. An authorized instruction and your ability to perform the activity are separate questions. Identify the unfamiliar part, obtain the appropriate preparation and clarify how supervision will work. This is particularly useful when a familiar device name hides a different model, configuration or clinical application.

Shortcut three is to label every routine task as either exclusively RN work or always support-worker work. Ask what the activity involves for this patient, what authority and competence the colleague has, and what supervision or feedback is needed. The local arrangement matters more than a generic internet task list.

Shortcut four is to treat a polished note as proof of a complete response. Ask whether the concern reached the right person, whether the instruction was clarified and who owns follow-up. The record should help the next clinician understand what happened; it should not conceal an unresolved action behind reassuring language.

Shortcut five is to assume older statements about prescribing remain universally true. Ontario's RN prescribing pathway and Australia's designated RN prescriber endorsement are specific examples of why a blanket 'never' can be wrong. The equally unsafe opposite is 'all RNs can prescribe.' Verify the individual authority, permitted activity and setting.

Shortcut six is to confuse exam preparation with workplace permission. NCLEX reasoning can strengthen prioritization and explanation. It does not authorize procedures, replace local laws or complete employer orientation. Use educational practice to formulate better questions, then obtain the real-world answer from the relevant regulator and service.

Sources: NCSBN — Scope of Practice Decision-Making Framework · College of Nurses of Ontario — Registered Nurse (RN) Prescribing · Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia — Endorsements and Notations