Nursing and Healthcare Services

Running head: NURSING AND HEALTHCARE SERVICES
NURSING AND HEALTHCARE SERVICES
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1NURSING AND HEALTHCARE SERVICES
Question 1
A protocol is an established framework dictating standards of clinical care for the
purpose of delivering quality services to patients within a particular area of practice. While a
protocol may not provide exact details on the methods underlying the performance of procedure,
protocols establish the place, the clinical situation, the reason and the designation personnel
responsible for deliverance of the protocol. For example: The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS),
as part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), provides protocols for the
delivering nutritious meals to patients with allergies by outlining frameworks for avoiding cross
contamination and labelling the food trays with the specific allergies, name, room number and
bed number of the patient (Morphet, Clarke & Bloomer, 2016). Standards of Practice are
frameworks, formulated at the national or state level, and dictates expected outcomes, duties and
responsibilities from health professionals. For example: the Nursing Standards of Practice are
implemented at the national level where every state has its own set of guidelines which dictate
nurses on the responsibilities they must follow to obtain licensure and successful implement
quality nursing services (McMullen et al., 2015). Policies are written statements dictating
standards of healthcare to be implemented at the federal level and hence, is governed solely by
federal legislation. For example: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has
been implemented by the federal government in order to ensure that every state overlooks
availability of subsidized insurance coverage and healthcare services for required patient
communities (Sommers et al., 2015).
The multiple stakeholders who are involved in the healthcare delivery system include,
patients, providers, policy makers and payers, each of whom perceive the system in varied ways.