Standards of practice in nursing: is it important?

Standards of practice in nursing: is it important?

By: Dantes, Michelle M.

Standards of practice (standards of care) are guidelines used to determine what a nurse should or should not do. Standards may be defined as “a benchmark of achievement which is based on a desired level of excellence”. Standards of care (SOC’s) measure the degree of excellence in nursing care and describe a competent level of nursing care.

In recent studies conducted, results shows that many nurses are face with lawsuits. It’s either negligence or malpractice. Most of these nurses appealed innocent or not guilty. Of course, who would want to accept the guilty charged that would mean suspension or worse, a revocation of your license as a nurse. 4 years or more of hardship to finish nursing, one single mistake can take it all away. That is why the ANA and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) have established nationally recognized standards of care.  These standards can hold nurses accountable, regardless of their area or state of practice. Standards of care can be found at a national, state and local level. All levels of expertise, from new graduate to experience nurse, should be able to meet these expectations of practice. Nurses have been held accountable for error in medication administration, failure to protect the patient from harm and failing to monitor the equipment for any malfunction which eventually can cause harm to patient. Any nurses who have been found incompetent or having lack of skills in promoting wellness and rendering care to patient is found liable in malpractice. And a nurse who does not meet accepted standards of care is at risk for being found negligent. Nurses in short doesn’t have a choice, the nature of nursing profession requires perfection. It requires honest devotion to fulfill your duties and responsibilities. Admit it or not, But nurses made mistakes sometimes or should I say most of the time. Nurses are humans after all.  No matter how hard they try not to make mistakes, mistakes are inevitable but are preventable. So no matter what standards of practice they established, I believed it is a duty of the nurse to make a right judgment call. A nurse must use her/his initiative at all times. Nurse must weigh the consequences of her actions all the time.He or she must keep in mind that the sphere of a nurse's accountability is to the client, to ensure safety and promote health. Next is the employing agency or the hospital and lastly is the profession, where in nurse took an oath not to do harm to the patient. Nurse is mostly responsible and accountable for the quality of nursing care given to clients. The single most important protective strategy for the nurse is to be a knowledgeable and safe practitioner of nursing and to meet the standards of care with all patients. A standard of practice is there to serves as an outlines of what is expected. It promotes guidance and directs professional nursing practice appropriately thus making fewer problems to occur.