Reflection: Registered Nurse Standards of Practice

Running Head: REFLECTION: REGISTERED NURSE STANDARDS OF PRACTICE 1
Reflection: Registered Nurse Standards of Practice
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REFLECTION: REGISTERED NURSE STANDARDS OF PRACTICE 2
Reflection: Registered Nurse Standards of Practice
Introduction
The seven Registered Nurse Standards of Practice developed by the Australian Health
Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) are supposed to be observed by all registered nurses
and midwives throughout Australia. The formulation of these standards was informed by the
need to keep up with the ever dynamic nursing profession requirements besides catering for the
complex and multifaceted Australian communities, cultures, and histories (AHPRA, 2018). As
such they are grounded on person-centered, scientific evidence, and professional relationship
footing which is instrumental in advancing holistic patient care (Andre, & Heartfield, 2011). The
focus of this paper is to reflect on two AHPRA Registered Nurse Standard of Practice
extrapolating on their importance and relevance in practice. Moreover, the paper will connect
their relevance to the experiences I gained during my undergraduate nursing clinical practice and
my imminence of transiting to become a registered nurse.
Standard 1: Thinks Critically and Analyses Nursing Practice
Nurses are called upon by this nursing standard to endeavor to fully exploit their nursing
knowledge and skills in order to provide the most optimal care to both patients and their families.
In doing so, the standard calls upon nurses to think critically and creatively for purposes of
advancing the best care to patients. Bittner and Gravlin, (2009); Borbasi and Jackson, (2015)
observe that such a standard is also instrumental in introducing nurses to the relevance of using
scientific research evidence to inform their nursing practice as well as reaching informed nursing
decisions on the same.
As I went about my nursing duties during my undergraduate nursing clinical practice last
long holiday, I came across numerous instances where I was challenged to employ my

REFLECTION: REGISTERED NURSE STANDARDS OF PRACTICE 3
capabilities of thinking critically to advance person-centered care from an evidence-based
perspective. One example I can vividly remember is a day when I was obligated to take care of
an old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman. She had been diagnosed with a mental
illness and it was upon me to advance adequate nursing care to her. Though challenged at first on
how best to take care of her, I later drew insights from my undergraduate theory on how to care
for mental patients as well as thinking critically on how I could engage her and her family in
their own care. I also strived to contact the most relevant scientific evidence to take care of her
deteriorated mental health condition.
Since the standard also emphasizes the need for nurses to be in a continuous nursing
thought development for purposes of improving current and future patient treatment outcomes, I
was keen to make this encounter a learning experience to inform my future practice. Whatever
actions I took in care for this Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patient was by and large on an
ethical trial. To this end, I took caution to exploit all the skills and knowledge I had acquired
while at the same time keeping my personal feelings and beliefs concerning such patients at bay.
Actually, the standard calls upon nurses to be respectful of the cultures and the role of the family
and community in catering for the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. As
such, I also took significance in complying with the set of nursing legislation, policies,
regulations, guidelines, and other standards to advance the most holistic care to the patient. This
was in recognition of the fact that failure to do so would have amounted to clinical negligence.
As I transition to becoming a fully registered nurse, my promise to myself is to strive to
abide by and follow the provisions of this standard. The standard is central at molding the
nurses’ thought process as well as exposing them to the tenets of scientific evidence, patient-
centered treatment approaches and the importance of observing ethics in the provision of the