ACU NRSG367: Report on Nursing Standards and Professional Practice

This report delves into two key nursing standards: critical thinking and engaging in therapeutic and professional relationships, as defined by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). The report highlights the importance of these standards in standardizing healthcare delivery and improving nurses' capabilities in the workplace. It examines critical thinking as a mental process involving the assessment, synthesis, and analysis of information during nursing practice, emphasizing its role in problem-solving, decision-making, and ensuring efficient and skillful interventions. The report provides a personal account of applying critical thinking during an acute care clinical placement, detailing how the student utilized knowledge, experience, and creativity to provide quality and safe patient care. The second part of the report focuses on engaging in professional and therapeutic relationships, emphasizing its role in guiding nurses' practice and maintaining ethical conduct. The report discusses the importance of building meaningful interactions with patients and healthcare professionals, respecting patient rights, and ensuring effective communication. The conclusion underscores the significance of these standards in promoting safe, competent nursing practices and encourages nurses to continuously seek knowledge and improve their skills to provide quality services. The report references key literature to support the discussed concepts.

Running head: NURSING STANDARDS 1
The Nursing Standards
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Date

NURSING STANDARDS 2
Introduction
The nursing standards of practice as set by Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia
(NMBA) are essential as they assist in standardizing and maintaining delivery of services to the
people of Australia. When the nursing standards are applied at the workplace, they help in
improving the working capabilities of the nurses. It is because of the application of the standards
in workplace help in strengthening nurses’ abilities to work confidently and guides those who
receive health care services. The standards also assist in minimizing the risks the nurses might
cause when providing services to patients as they are aware of what they are expected to do. All
nurses should ensure that they understand the standards for them to be able to provide health care
services as required by those standards. Registered nurses must satisfy that their practice reveals
the understanding of the cultural, spiritual and cultural traits of the community and should also
follow the standards when carrying out their duty (Potter, Perry, Stockert & Hall, 2016). The two
nursing standards to be discussed are standard 1, critical thinking skills and standard 2, engaging
in a therapeutic and professional relationship.
Standard 1: Thinks Critically and analysis nursing practice
Critical thinking is a mental condition that involves assessment, synthesis, and analysis of
available information and research during nursing practice. Critical thinking is essential to nurses
especially during the process of solving the client’s problems and in making decisions. Critical
thinking is also crucial to nurses because it ensures that their interventions practices are efficient
and skillful. The capability of the nurse to understand and respond to signs and symptoms of the
patient plays an essential role in improving outcomes; it is because making errors in judgment
and decision is the primary cause of inconsistent results in clinical events. Therefore, nurses are
required to apply critical thinking in the practice of making treatment decisions for them to be

NURSING STANDARDS 3
able to address the problems of a patient critically and influence the outcome positively (Billings
& Halstead, 2015). Critical thinking is a significant process for ensuring skillful, safe and
efficient intervention practices. Critical thinking enables nurses to develop reasonable and new
ideas when working. Through the use of critical thinking, nurses are capable of producing
considerable and original solutions to challenges, and confidentiality and independently face
circumstances during the provision of care services (Ironside, McNelis & Ebright, 2014).
I portrayed the understanding of critical thinking during the acute care clinical placement
at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Fitzroy. During the placement I applied critical thinking when
assessing the patients hence providing appropriate care to them. When assessing the patients, I
ensured that my practices reflected my knowledge, experiences, beliefs, and feelings. For proper
treatment, I also ensured that a maintained accurate and timely documentation of actions, plans,
evaluations, decision making and assessments (Dang & Dearholt, 2017). Critically analyzing,
accessing and utilizing available evidence and information assisted me when assessing the
patients in order to provide quality safety and practice. During the placement, I also ensured that
I portrayed confidence while communicating with the patients in order for them to be able to
share information effectively that assisted me in assessment (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). In order to
ensure that I provided adequate care to the patients, I regularly used creativity, improved
understanding of medication and sought out other nurses help when in doubt. Lastly, I ensured
that I respected all the experiences and cultures of a patient by understanding and respecting
roles that family members and community played during the provision of healthcare services. I
always ensured that I involved the family and the patients in decision making regarding their
treatment (O'connell, Gardner & Coyer, 2014).
.

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Standard 2: Engaging in professional and therapeutic relations
This nursing standard is crucial for all the nurses as it guides and helps them to define
and perform their roles effectively. This nursing standard is also very essential in future for
clarifications within the course service delivery in case there are some differences. Through the
nursing standard 2, the nurses strengthen their practice by improving on their ability to perform
the client’s assessment, recognizing their accountability in their actions, being considerate to
their limits and having the ability to solve problems with high integrity. The registered nurses
are expected to be trustful, and they will never cover any unethical behavior from other
healthcare professionals or workers. This can be ensured by noting the unethical practices from
the other workers such as patients’ confidentiality and privacy and enacting accordingly to
portray an impressive view of the nursing practice to the clients (Wright et al, 2018).
I ensured that I utilized the standard during my placement in the Mental Health Clinical
at Clayton Monash Hospital. To enhance the standard two, I ensured that I created and
maintained meaningful interactions with the clients and other healthcare professionals so that I
differentiate the professional and personal qualities at the workplace (DiCenso, Guyatt & Ciliska,
2014). I achieved the functional relationship through ensuring a confidential and mature
correlation with other professionals and patient, listening to the patient’s issues keenly and
proper documentation of reporting and recording of patient’s issues. In such a way I understood
the means to enhance a quality relationship at the workplace (Twigg & McCullough, 2014). To
strengthen a meaningful relationship, I ensured that there is proper communication and respected
the patient’s dignity, rights, values, and culture while providing services. Also, in creating a
therapeutic relationship I ensured that I gave the patients the autonomy to self-rule before
progressing with the necessary nursing care and also confirmed that I was proficient when asking

NURSING STANDARDS 5
patients any question concerning their health while also ensuring the appropriateness and
relevance of the question (Melnyk, Gallagher‐Ford, Long & Fineout‐Overholt, 2014).
Conclusion
It is evident that the two nursing standards discussed are essential during the provision of
care to a patient. They assist in maintaining and directing clinically and safe, competent nursing
practices. They also help in promoting and guiding nurse’s clinical practices. The standards
should be emphasized since they ensure proper documentation and safe practices. The standards
are essential as they encourage nurses to seek nursing knowledge through experiences and
education continually. Violation of the standards makes a nurse be exposed to possible
disciplinary measures and liability. Therefore, every nurse must follow the standards and
improve his or her knowledge in order to provide quality services.

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References
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2015). Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Billings, D. M., & Halstead, J. A. (2015). Teaching in nursing-e-book: A guide for faculty.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Dang, D., & Dearholt, S. L. (2017). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: Model and
guidelines. Sigma Theta Tau.
DiCenso, A., Guyatt, G., & Ciliska, D. (2014). Evidence-Based Nursing-E-Book: A Guide to
Clinical Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Ironside, P. M., McNelis, A. M., & Ebright, P. (2014). Clinical education in nursing: Rethinking
learning in practice settings. Nursing Outlook, 62(3), 185-191.
Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher‐Ford, L., Long, L. E., & Fineout‐Overholt, E. (2014). The
establishment of evidence‐based practice competencies for practicing registered nurses
and advanced practice nurses in real‐world clinical settings: Proficiencies to improve
healthcare quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on Evidence
‐
Based Nursing, 11(1), 5-15.
O'connell, J., Gardner, G., & Coyer, F. (2014). Beyond competencies: using a capability
framework in developing practice standards for advanced practice nursing. Journal of
advanced nursing, 70(12), 2728-2735.
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2016). Fundamentals of Nursing-E-Book.
Elsevier Health Sciences.

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Twigg, D., & McCullough, K. (2014). Nurse retention: a review of strategies to create and
enhance positive practice environments in clinical settings. International journal of
nursing studies, 51(1), 85-92.
Wright, A., Moss, P., Dennis, D. M., Harrold, M., Levy, S., Furness, A. L., & Reubenson, A.
(2018). The influence of a full-time, immersive simulation-based clinical placement on
physiotherapy student confidence during the transition to clinical practice. Advances in
Simulation, 3(1), 3.