The Australian health ministries

Running head: NATIONAL SAFETY & QUALITY HEALTH SERVICES
IMPORTANCE OF NSQHS STANDARDS IN NURSING PROFESSIONALS
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NSQHS STANDARDS1
Health system or healthcare settings are complex and is continuously evolving. It is
important for the health system or healthcare setting to implement or practice an effective
approach that would enhance the quality and improve the overall health outcome. The
National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards consist of multiple
parameters that would improve the clinical settings or healthcare settings. Nursing
professionals are considered to be frontline executives to deliver qualitative services. Hence,
they play a critical role in implementing and practising the standards. This essay tends to
examine the three standards set of NSQHS and understands the necessity of nursing
professionals to know the standards that would enhance the nursing practice.
The NSQHS is a set of standards that have been endorsed by the Australian health
ministries, which provides a specific and effective set of care that the patients or consumer
expects from any hospital or health care organisation. Eight total standards of the NSQHS
would improve the level of care and improve the health outcome (Safetyandquality.gov.au
2020). This health outcome would improve the experience and satisfaction level of the
consumer or care seekers. Every healthcare providers and healthcare professionals must know
about NSQHS standards, specifically the nursing professionals. Nurses are responsible for
providing high-quality care to the patients and implementing or having knowledge of these
standards would improve their approaches of delivering the care (Flanigan 2016). This
improvement of delivering care would be beneficial for the patients in recovery or
minimising any human errors on them. Thus, the three NSQHS standards that are very
necessary and important for nursing professionals to implement in their clinical practice.
The first standard of NSQHS that nursing professionals should be aware of is the
clinical governance standard. This standard explains that it is important for the health system
or healthcare settings to partnering with the patients for achieving the optimal outcome
(Safetyandquality.gov.au 2020). Clinical governance would let the healthcare settings to

NSQHS STANDARDS2
establish an effective relationship within the settings and with the patients. Nurses are the
frontline staffs, and they are responsible for delivering health service to the patients and the
overall community with safe, high quality along with continuously improving services
(Pazokian & Borhani 2017). Therefore, every healthcare settings or organisation needs to
practice the strategies of the clinical governance with the consideration of the nearby
circumstances. Hence, for supporting the clinical governance in every setting, the Australian
Commission on safety and quality in healthcare has formulated a national clinical governance
framework. This framework consists of five major elements and the first component is
governance, leadership and culture. This component explained the integration of both
clinical, along with corporate governance that would amplify the safety along with the quality
of health care towards patients. The second component is patient safety and quality
improvement system, and nurses must integrate the governance process along with the
quality system. Thus, it would reduce medical errors and improve the safety of the patient.
The third element is clinical performance and effectiveness, and it states that the healthcare
setting should include the right qualification and skilled staffs for providing high-quality
service. The fourth element explains the safe environment for delivery care, and nurses
should provide a safe environment for the patients. The last element is partnering with a
consumer, and healthcare setting must provide support to patients and their families in
designing the care, treatment process, evaluation and any care related services.
The major importance of this standards is that it would help the leaders of the
healthcare setting for providing the safe care and achieving the vision, and would provide a
safe environment for both the worker and consumer or patients (Veenstra et al. 2017). This
standard would allow nurses and the entire team for working towards the shared goal of
providing optimal and effective care to the patients. Nurses would take responsibility for the