Check out this PSA from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing for information about dealing with any concerns regarding care below the standards of nursing, you or a family member may have received by an RN or LPN.
The following practice categories were based upon notions of good nursing practice:
- Safe medication administration: The nurse administers the right dose of the right medication via the right route to the right patient at the right time for the right reason.
- Documentation: The nurse ensures complete, accurate and timely documentation.
- Attentiveness: The nurse is knowledgeable about the patient’s care and maintains vigilance to be aware of what is happening with the patient and staff. The nurse observes and stays on top of what is happening with the patient, the clinical condition and responses to therapy, as well as potential hazards or errors in treatment.
- Clinical Reasoning: The nurse demonstrates appropriate decision-making, critical thinking and sound clinical judgment. Clinicians use scientific and technology in making clinical decisions as well as taking into account the current clinical condition.
- Prevention: The nurse follows usual and customary measures to prevent risks, errors, threats to patient safety and hazards or complications due to illness or hospitalization. Hazards of immobility include skin breakdown, kidney stones, contractures, etc.
- Intervention: The nurse properly executes healthcare procedures aimed at specific therapeutic goals. Interventions are implemented in a timely manner. Nurses perform the right intervention on the right patient.
- Interpretation and implementation of authorized provider orders: The nurse interprets and carries out authorized provider orders.
- Professional Responsibility and Patient Advocacy: The nurse demonstrates professional responsibility and understands the nature of the nurse-patient relationship. The nurse puts the needs of the patient first. Advocacy refers to the expectations that a nurse acts responsibly in protecting patient/family vulnerabilities.
“Practice breakdown” is the disruption or absence of any of the aspects of good practice. (www.ncsbn.org)
