Nursing Standards

The College of Nurses of Ontario’s mission statement is to “protect the public’s right to quality nursing services by providing leadership to the nursing profession in self-regulation” (CNO, 2012). The College of Nurses recognizes that self-regulation is a privilege granted by proving that they are capable of putting the interests of the public before their own. By establishing a number of requirements for entry to practice, articulating and promoting practice standards, administering quality assurance, and enforcing standards of practice and conduct, the College fulfills it’s

Professional nursing practice has been developing for several centuries. Nursing as a profession can be traced back to the early Christian era. Since then the perception of nursing practice has changed significantly. “Nursing is caring, commitment, and dedication to meeting the functional health needs of all people” (Craven &

In the article “What Do Nurses Really Do?”, Suzanne Gordon explores what nurses truly do. She concludes that nurses “save lives, prevent complications, prevent suffering, and save money” (Gordon 2006). Nurses provide care for their patients in the physical and emotional sense. Emotionally caring for a patient and being sensitive to his or her needs result from interacting with patients while performing the skills and using the knowledge that nurses learned in school. Nurses grow in their skills, knowledge, and attitudes through practice. Quality and safety education for nursing incorporates competencies that all nurses must use in their practice. These nursing competencies include evidence-based nursing practice, quality improvement, safety, teamwork and collaboration, patient-centered care, and informatics.

The number one priority of the Registered Nurse should be to provide holistic, patient-centred, safe and evidence based care to every patient. Patients who are admitted into hospital or seek healthcare services externally through clinics or the community usually expect to receive the safest and the highest quality of care possible from that facility. Registered Nurses have a major responsibility to ensure that this is achieved. To help guide nurses and other healthcare workers in the right direction, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia created and enforced the “Registered Nurse Standards for Practice”. These standards aim to assist healthcare practitioners in providing high quality and safe care to every client. The standards also aim to prevent any form of harm or negative consequence to the patient during and after their time in any healthcare facility. This paper will discuss the reportedly increasing issue of elder abuse, the responsibilities of the Registered Nurse and the associated Standards of Practice when faced with a patient or family that is experiencing this type of harm. The standards discussed in this paper will be Standards 2.5, 2.9 and 6.6.

(2010) said delegation by RNs is a primary mechanism for ensuring that professional nursing standards of care reach the

The ANA is a professional organization that represents all the nation’s registered nurses. It helps the advancement of the nursing profession by issuing high standards of practice, and promoting the rights of nurses in the profession. The Code of Ethics is developed as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities, along with an appropriate quality in caring with the ethical obligations of the profession. Ethic has always been an essential part of nursing as nursing has a history of concern for the sick, injured. The Code of Ethics for Nurses serves these purposes: it serves

There are nine provisions included in the ANA code of ethics. The provisions can be broken into three categories. The first category is the nurse’s ethical responsibilities to her patient which is provisions one through three. Second is the nurse’s obligation to herself, provisions four through six. The third ethical requirement for nurses is related to their relationship to the nursing profession, community, nation, and world overall. This focus is summarized in provisions seven through nine [ (American Nurses Association, 2013) ].

Behaviors associated with nursing professionalism go far beyond how nurses practice in a clinical setting. Alidina describes professionalism as “a multidimensional concept that provides nurses with opportunities to grow personally and professionally (2013, p. 128). This shows that professionalism has many different components. Alidina also uses “Miller’s Wheel of Professionalism.” This model uses a wheel to represent different aspects of professionalism. The different behaviors that are represented are “adherence to code for nurses, community service orientation, Professional Organization Participation, autonomy and self-regulation, Publication and Communication, development and use of theory and research, and continuing education and competence (2013, p. 129-130).

The CNO outlined professional standards for nurses to comply with. The seven that are outlined are accountability, continuing competence, ethics, knowledge, knowledge application, leadership, and relationships. “A standard is an authoritative statement that sets out the legal and professional basis of nursing practice” (College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009, p. 3). Although each standard has different meaning, they all work together in order to provide the best possible patient care.

American Nurses Association (ANA) Standards of Professional Performance explains how all registered nurses do their work and activities consistently according to their professions that promote the wellbeing of their patients and communities (ANA, 2010a). The standards provide a mechanism to patients that they are been taken good care of and that the nurses know exactly what to do so as to provide high-quality care and the measures are in place to determine whether nursing care meets the standards. These activities are related to performance like ethics, quality of practice, education, communication, resources, leadership, environmental health, professional practice evaluation, and evidence-based practice and research. Registered nurses are responsible for their professional actions to themselves, their patients, their peers, and the community at large.

The NMC has a code of professional conduct, standard for conduct, performance and ethics, the code clearly states the need for nurses, midwives as well as special community public health nurses to maintain their professional knowledge and competence in order to deliver care based on current evidence, best practice and where applicable (NMC 2004, p.10). Hence, nursing profession is regulated by the NMC which has

Professional practice models can help guides nursing practice in any healthcare setting. Nursing care models are commonly adopted by Magnet organizations because they promote staff autonomy, shared decision making, patient-centeredness, and quality care. Nurses most often develop PPMs which reflect not only nursing values but the organization’s values as well. This paper will explore several elements of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s (BWH) Professional Practice Model (PPM). First, the model’s fundamental nursing framework will be identified. Next, a brief discussion on how the model promotes patient-centeredness, evidence-based practice, and interdisciplinary collaboration will be presented. Lastly, a summary of how the model fosters quality, safety, informatics, shared governance and leadership will be reviewed.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) established The Standards of Professional Nursing Practice (2010). The Standards of Professional Nursing Practice consists of Standards of Practice and Standards of Professional Performance. The standards serve as guidelines to define the profession of nursing and define the scope of practice for professional nurses. All standards presented in the The Standards of Professional Nursing Practice (2010) are essential for the nursing professional to function, legally, ethically and professionally in the healthcare organization.

The standards of practice describe a competent level of nursing care as exhibited by the critical thinking model known as the nursing process. This practice includes the areas of assessment, diagnosis, outcome identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The nursing process includes significant actions taken by registered nurses (RN) and forms the foundation of the nurse’s decision-making (“American Nurses Association,” 2010).

This means people from different disciplines all working together with the same goal or interest, it involves doctors, nurses, physios, occupational therapists, social workers and many other agencies working in the best interest of the patient. This ensures that continuing care is a smooth process from hospital admission and beyond. Respecting work colleagues and working as a team, listening to their contributions and sharing your knowledge will have an important impact on the patients care, maintain their dignity and respecting this will give the best outcome for them. This aspect of the NMC code sets good standards and guidelines for understanding the principles when providing nursing care, nurses have a responsibility to deliver safe and effective care for the best interest of the patient, which is