Quality of Care Provided by RN Mary: A Critical Analysis

Running head: NURSING
NURSING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
Nursing care professionals are expected to comply with the professional and ethical
standards and impart patient-centred care (Halcomb et al., 2016). The NSQHS standards
expect care professionals to adapt a patient-centred care approach and impart care that
focuses on the holistic care needs of the patients (Cashin et al., 2017). In this context, it
should be noted that the NMBA professional standards have been developed to critically
assess the competence level of the care services rendered by the nurses within the Australian
healthcare system (Halcomb et al., 2017). The clinical significance of the NMBA standards
can be explained as quality assurance to ensure patient safety and positive patient outcome.
This paper intends to critically analyse the quality of care provided by RN Mary and
compare it against the NMBA standards and present an elaborate argument on the
implication of the care quality on the holistic health outcome of the patient.
Section A:
The provided case scenario discusses about RN Mary who is reported to be working
within a residential aged care facility. The case study further suggests that on multiple
instances, during RN Mary’s shift hours, her patients have remained unattended. Further, it
has also been mentioned that after the completion of RN Mary’s shift, her colleagues have
noticed that the urine bottles have not been emptied and the wet bed sheets have not been
changed. Also, RN Mary has been reported to spend long hours in the Nurse’s station. Upon
critically analysing the provided information, it can be mentioned that RN Mary has not been
able to comply with the NMBA professional standards in terms of delivering patient-centred
care or applying evidence-based care practices to deliver effective patient care services. The
NMBA standards of practice for the Registered Nurses expect care professionals to deliver
person-centred care and make use of the evidence based care practices to render patient care

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that helps acquire positive patient outcome (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2019). It can be
stated in this context that RN Mary has been reported to leave her patients unattended and
compromise on the patient safety measures which is evident through her actions of not
changing the wet bed sheets or emptying the urine bottles. Therefore, on the basis of these
considerations it can be said that RN Mary has not been able to effectively cater to the care
needs of the patients.
In addition to this, it should also be stated here that RN Mary has not been able to
formulate a positive therapeutic relationship with her clients based on the elements of patient
centred care. As per the second standard of the NMBA Professional Standards, care
professionals are expected to actively engage in a patient-centred therapeutic relationship
with the patients and also maintain an effective professional relationship with the
multidisciplinary care professionals so as to focus on the holistic health care needs of the
patients. As has already been mentioned, the RN has been reported to spend long hours in the
Nurses Station as a result of which her patients remain unattended and subsequently she has
not been able to establish a positive therapeutic relationship with her clients
(Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2019). This serves as the primary reason that results in
compromise of the quality of care provided to the patients on account of the fact that lack of a
positive therapeutic relationship leads to poor understanding of patient’s care needs (Lane et
al., 2017).
RN Mary could positively partner with her patients in order to deliver effective care
that is based on the health specific and culture specific preferences of the patient. In addition
to this, RN Mary could make use of effective verbal and non-verbal gestures to communicate
with the patients so as to develop a rapport based on the elements of mutual trust, empathy,
respect and dignity to acquire positive patient outcome (Birks et al., 2016). Further, she
should also impart health literacy to the patients based on their healthcare needs so as to