National Safety and Quality Healthcare Service Standards

This article discusses the National Safety and Quality Healthcare Service Standards, specifically clinical governance and medication safety. The author reflects on their clinical practice using the Gibbs Reflective model and emphasizes the importance of information management and medication safety in healthcare facilities.

RUNNING HEAD: NATIONAL SAFETY AND QUALITY HEALTHCARE SERVICE STANDARDS 1
National Safety and Quality Healthcare Service Standards.
Name:
Institution:
Tutor:
Date:

NATIONAL SAFETY AND QUALITY HEALTHCARE SERVICE STANDARDS 2
National Safety and Quality Healthcare Service and Standards
INTRODUCTION
In this interview, I will demonstrate my understanding of two NSQHS that include
clinical governance specifically information management element and medication safety
(Williams, Woolliams, & Spiro, 2012). In so doing, I will reflect on my clinical practice using
the Gibbs Reflective model.
DESCRIPTION
During one of my routine nursing practice, there was a patient who came at the healthcare
facility and requested for the previous treatment history that he had been subjected to two
months ago. The reason why the patient was interested in the data was that it was needed by
another healthcare expert. It was therefore needed so that they could understand the medical
history of the patient. The patient was then told to visit the health records department where
information was retrieved then given to him.
While I was at the mental health department, we were supposed to adhere to the rights of
medication. We had to look at the drug, confirm the date of expiry and counter check the
patient’s name before administering the drug to the patient.
FEELINGS
I was very shocked and I kept wondering why a patient would seek such a treatment plan
which had happened several months ago. I was also excited at the same time since I was eager to
find out how well the healthcare facility keeps information about patients. I was very happy after
the information was issued to the patient. I was happy because the NSQHS were in full swing at

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that particular healthcare institution where I was working. I was also happy with this act of
adhering to the rights of medication since I had that belief that no patient will perish as a result of
negligence.
EVALUATION
All the part of the clinical experience were positive since all the objectives were
achieved. The information that the patient was in need was retrieved easily since information
management standards were very high. The second experience was also positive since there was
no scenario that I came across of negligence where a patient had been given the wrong
medication.
ANALYSIS
There are eight National Safety and Quality Health Service standards in Australia. These
standards are owned by the Australian Commission on safety and Quality in Healthcare
("implementation of National Safety and Quality Standards in Australia's health system," 2015).
These standards have been made compulsory in all the health organizations in the country .These
standards were set up with several objectives and they include protecting the public from harm or
injury and then improving on the quality of the health services that are rendered to the general
public.
The first and my most favorite standard which I understand very well is Governance for
safety and quality in the health service organizations (Banks, 2016). Clinical governance can be
defined as the framework that health care organizations are accountable for continuous
improvement in the quality of the services they provide to the citizens and protecting high
standards through creation of an environment where excellence in patient care would work very

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well(Delaney, 2015). Clinical governance has several elements that include risk management and
information management.
Information management entails the act of safeguarding patients information from the
time he or she is incepted at the healthcare institution up to the time he or she will be
discharged .The NSQHS under clinical government states that the patient information should be
very confidential and unauthorized access should be limited at all costs (Malvey, 2013).In this
scenario that I came across during my routine nursing practice, the data about the patient was
retrieved very quickly since it had been stored in a private file over the computer. The
information was therefore retrieved and given to the patient who took them to another healthcare
that was providing care to him as well. Failure to provide that information would have made it
difficult to provide care by the other health institution. It is therefore very important for all the
healthcare organization to come up with safe ways that they should manage patient information
from.
The act of counterchecking the rights of medication is still under the NSQHS number
four which is about Medication Safety Standard ("Medication Safety in Hospitals: Avoiding
Medication Errors in the Medication use Process," 2013). It states that all patients should be
subjected to safe medication. This includes the right dose, right drug, right route of
administration and the right patient.
CONCLUSION
From the experiences, I have got very valuable lessons. I have learnt that information
management is very vital at healthcare facilities. Could the healthcare facility have failed to
provide patient history, it would have been very difficult for the other healthcare institution to

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provide care to the patient. I have also learnt that medication safety is an important NSQHS since
some nurse’s end up giving the wrong drug to the wrong patient and this leads to deaths. All the
healthcare facilities should therefore adhere to the NSQHS so that there is quality patient care
and outcomes as well as protecting the public from harm.
ACTION PLAN
As a nurse, I will always ensure that whatever the healthcare facility I work, NSQHS
should be at interplay always .I have come to realize the importance of those standards so much.
To make other colleagues adhere to the said standards, I will introduce a penalty to anyone who
doesn’t abide by the standards.

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References
Banks, M. (2016). Isqua16-2476improving the safety and quality of healthcare for aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people using the Australian National Safety and Quality
Health service standards. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 28(suppl
1), 55.1-55. doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzw104.86
Delaney, L. (2015). The challenges of an integrated governance process in healthcare.
Clinical Governance: An International Journal, 20(2), 74-81. doi:10.1108/cgij-02-
2015-0005
The implementation of National Safety and Quality Standards in Australia's health system.
(2015). OECD Reviews of Health Care Quality, 129-163.
doi:10.1787/9789264233836-7-en
Malvey, D. (2013). The Fear Factor in Healthcare: Employee Information Sharing. Journal
of Healthcare Management, 58(3), 225-237. doi:10.1097/00115514-201305000-
00011
Medication Safety in Hospitals: Avoiding Medication Errors in the Medication use Process.
(2013). Advances in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, 02(03).
doi:10.4172/2167-1052.1000134
Williams, K., Woolliams, M., & Spiro, J. (2012). Using a framework for reflection: Gibbs’
reflective cycle. Reflective Writing, 90-102. doi:10.1007/978-0-230-37724-0_16