NRSG367: Reflection on NSQHS Standards in Nursing Practicum ACU

This essay is a reflection on the student's experiences during their Bachelor's practicum, focusing on the implementation of The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards. It uses the 5 R’s of reflective model to discuss the understanding of these standards in practical situations. The reflection covers two industry standards: Preventing and Controlling Healthcare Associated Infection and Communicating for Safety. The student reflects on witnessing a nurse not wearing gloves while preparing medication, highlighting the importance of hygiene and cleanliness. The essay also discusses a situation where a patient with limited English proficiency struggled to understand healthcare interventions, leading to the implementation of effective communication skills. The student concludes that these experiences underscored the importance of NSQHS standards and effective communication in delivering patient-centered care, contributing to their development as a nursing professional. Desklib offers a wide range of solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
Introduction
Reflection is termed as one of the primary attribute in nursing profession as through the
implementation of reflective practice nursing professionals are able to retrospect upon their
actions and could develop their scope of improvements (Barksby, Butcher & Whysall, 2015).
This retrospection also provides them with the scope of improvement so that with professional
development, nurses could improve their personal skills as well.
In this assignment, I would be discussing about few of my Bachelor’s practicum
experiences that helped me to implement my theoretical knowledge to the practical situations. I
would use the 5 R’s of reflective model while discussing the way I was able to understand the
implementation of The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards in
practical situations.
Industry standard 3: Preventing and Controlling Healthcare Associated Infection
Reporting
While undergoing one of my bachelor’s practicum situations, I experienced the
importance of proper implementation of the NSQHS standards so that patients could be provided
with effective and quality healthcare (Safetyandquality.gov.au, 2019). I was provided with the
opportunity to work with one of the RNs in the emergency ward and I was asked to maintain
medication log for every patient (Safetyandquality.gov.au, 2019). However, I observed that one
of the enrolled nurses did not wear gloves and was calculating medicine dosage for medicine
administration (Aronson et al., 2016). This was the situation that forced me to think about the
importance of NSQHS standard as it was violated in front of me.

2REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
Responding
Upon watching the nurse violating the situation, I felt concerned for the patient’s
situation as the nurse was about to administer the medicine to the patient. However, the lack of
objection from the other nursing professionals affected my thought as I learned in my theoretical
classes that while working for patients, it is important to implement hygiene and cleanliness in
the ward so that the quality could be improved (Tamilselvi & Srinivas, 2016). Hence, this
situation contradicted my knowledge about hygiene in ward.
Relating
As per the NSQHS standard that I learned in classroom, it is important for the nursing
professionals and healthcare professionals to help and contribute in preventing, managing or
controlling Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) so that good health outcome could be
obtained for every patient. Hence, if it is followed, the nursing professional should have worn a
glove so that the HAIs could be prevented (Aronson et al., 2016).
Reasoning
While explaining this situation, I would mention that while calculating medicines and
other interventions that is directly implemented in patient’s body, the nurse should focus on
infection preventive measures so that the patient could be protected from harmful effects of HAIs
(Shaban et al., 2016). Hence this aspect should have been maintained in the care process.
Reconstructing
This situation made me aware that it is the responsibility of the nursing professional to be
aware of the NSQHS standards and use their best to implement effective care so that positive

3REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
actions could be observed. Further, it is our responsibility to maintain hygiene and cleanliness in
the ward so that patients could be protected from harmful effects of HAIs (Flanigan, 2016).
Industry standard 6: communicating for safety standards
Reporting
Another clinical practicum that I observed while working in the geriatric unit was
associated with one of the patient Mr. X (72) who was unable to focus on the healthcare
interventions. He was unable to speak fluent English and while communicating with him, I saw
few of the nurses used string and lengthy sentences that he was unable to understand. Majority of
the time he was quite and it increases his depression condition. Hence, I implemented effective
listening and active micro skills in the process, so that the patient could express himself in front
of me and I could observe his mental stress and depression, as it could affect his health
improvement.
Responding
Upon observing the patient not responding to the nursing communication efforts, I was
concerned as Mufson et al. (2015) mentions in their research that if patient is unable to speak up
or spends majority of the time quite in their wards, it could be sign of depression and stress that
they are unable to share with others. Hence, I started to use my effective communication skills
including active micro skills so that I could paraphrase the complex sentences in smaller and
simpler forms (Linton et al., 2016). This was the personal and theoretical understanding relevant
to this situation.

4REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
Relating
As per the NSQHS standard 6, it is important for the nursing professionals and healthcare
professionals working in the health facility to implement effective care so that it could develop a
multidisciplinary team with active involvement of the patients in it. This effective
communication is an important aspect for the growth and development of the patient’s wellbeing
and to ensure patient’s safety. As per Alyami, Chan and New (2019), implementation of
effective communication has the ability to involve the patient in the care process and also solve
their concerns that can increase their stress and depression related conditions. This is the
theoretical understanding that was observed in this situation.
Reasoning
As per Flanigan (2016), while undergoing critical health conditions, patients suffer from
mental stress, depression and concerns due to which, their health condition and their
complications increases. The particular patient I observed in my clinical experience also was
unable to focus upon critical health condition due to his lack of knowledge of his health
complication and hence, this increased his depression and stress (Alyami, Chan & New, 2019).
Therefore, it was important to provide the patient with health literacy so that he could understand
his complications and support us for the successful implementation of care.
Reconstructing
This experience helped me to understand that effective communication is an important
aspect that should be implemented in care process of patients so that patient centered or family
centered care could be implemented in the care process. Further, I was also able to understand
that application of NSQHS standards in the care process and its importance in the effective and

5REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
quality care process (Bramhall, 2014). Hence, both of these experiences helped me to develop
myself as an effective nursing professional.

6REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
References
Alyami, H. M., Chan, R. J., & New, K. (2019). End-of-life care preferences for people with
advanced cancer and their families in intensive care units: a systematic
review. Supportive Care in Cancer, 1-12.
Aronson, N., Herwaldt, B. L., Libman, M., Pearson, R., Lopez-Velez, R., Weina, P., ... & Magill,
A. (2016). Diagnosis and treatment of leishmaniasis: clinical practice guidelines by the
Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Society of Tropical
Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). Clinical infectious diseases, 63(12), e202-e264.
Barksby, J., Butcher, N., & Whysall, A. (2015). A new model of reflection for clinical
practice. Nursing times, 111(34-35), 21-23.
Bramhall, E. (2014). Effective communication skills in nursing practice. Nursing Standard
(2014+), 29(14), 53.
Flanigan, K. (2016). NSQHS standard-patient identification. ACORN: The Journal of
Perioperative Nursing in Australia, 29(1), 23.
Linton, S. J., Boersma, K., Traczyk, M., Shaw, W., & Nicholas, M. (2016). Early workplace
communication and problem solving to prevent back disability: results of a randomized
controlled trial among high-risk workers and their supervisors. Journal of occupational
rehabilitation, 26(2), 150-159.
Mufson, L., Moreau, D. O. N. N. A., Weissman, M. M., & Klerman, G. L. (2015). Interpersonal
psychotherapy for depressed adolescents.

7REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT
Safetyandquality.gov.au. (2019). Clinical Governance Standard | Australia Commission on
Safety and Quality in Healthcare. Retrieved 23 August 2019, from
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/standards/nsqhs-standards/communicating-safety-
standard
Shaban, R. Z., Macbeth, D., Vause, N., & Simon, G. (2016). Documentation, composition and
organisation of infection control programs and plans in Australian healthcare systems: A
pilot study. Infection, Disease & Health, 21(2), 51-61.
Tamilselvi, M., & Srinivas, A. (2016). Clinical quality strategy facilitates effective quality
system implementation for prevention of healthcare associated infections. Management in
Health, 20(1).