Standards of care in the nursing practice refer to the general principles or guidelines designed by the regulatory bodies, including the ministry, that offer a foundation as to how the local hospital, clinic, or home-based care is managed, including decision-making, staffing, and workplace issues (Minvielle, 2018). For example, these standards dictate how a regional institution should require their nurses to behave when caring for patients, which decisions to make when faced with specific dilemmas, and what techniques to use to care for patients in particular scenarios. Nursing standards, such as the those designed by the American Nursing Association (ANA), require nurses to behave ethically and uphold high standards of professionalism when caring for patients, prioritizing patient health, and safety. However, it is essential to acknowledge that these standards pose both negative and positive impacts on the operability of healthcare facilities and nurses. The following section highlights these pros and cons of standards of patient care to local organizations.
Discussion
Positive Effects of Standards of Care
Firstly, and most importantly, the standards of care play a central part in influencing the staffing decisions in the regional hospitals, including the number of nurses required in every department, their roles, their qualification requirements, and many others. This, in turn, positively impacts the quality of care offered to patients, which also potentially reduces the length of hospital stay and the amount of many spent on hospital bills. For example, the introduction of the 2017 law ‘Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act’ necessitates hospitals to file a report and submit to the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) about their staffing plan, including the number of nurse-to-patient ratios for each department. This is significantly important in boosting both patient safety and quality (JNESO, n.d.). Apart from staffing, standards of patient care offer guidance to hospitals on the protocols that should be implemented during patient care in particular scenarios, which ensures uniformity across the country. It stipulates the best diagnostic or treatment procedures, which are usually proven scientifically or regarded as standard practice, ensuring that patients receive the most recent and appropriate therapies. For example, the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) provides standard procedures that can be used to diagnose psychological illnesses in hospitals.
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Adverse Effects of Standards of Care
Despite creating uniformity as well as improving the quality and safety of patients in hospitals, standards of care have their own setbacks. Firstly, because of their consistency, they may fail to address issues pertinent to special patient conditions. Ideally, it is argued that quality care is achieved best when unique solutions and standards are designed to address particular patient conditions, which unquestionably vary from one institution to another. Using general rules cannot adequately address individual needs. Similarly, the uniformity in the standards of care in the nursing field tends to affect the assessment of nurses. It is important to note that achievement appraisal is effectively executed when they are tweaked based on each worker’s specific level of responsibility, experience with the organization, and job roles. Standardized evaluations have the weakness of being less flexible, often forcing regulators to assess nurses on possibly irrelevant criteria (Minvielle, 2018).
Conclusion
Standards of care are general principles or guidelines designed by different nursing regulatory bodies as a means of controlling staffing issues, nursing procedures like diagnosis and treatment, and many others. On the one hand, standards of care are beneficial because they ensure hospitals get the right personnel with the precise skills and experience, which potentially guarantees that the patient receives quality care. On the other hand, the standard of care in nursing practice can affect the delivery of quality care in exceptional cases that require tailored medical care.
References
JNESO. (n.d.). Nurse Staffing Standards for Hospital Patient Safety and Quality Care Act. Retrieved from https://jneso.org/call-to-action/nurse-staffing-standards-for-hospital-patient-safety-and-quality-care-act/
Minvielle, E. (2018). Toward customized care. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 7 (3), 272-274. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5890073/
