Partnering with Consumers: A Key to Quality and Safety Standards

This essay explores the critical role of partnering with consumers in healthcare, emphasizing its importance in maintaining safety, enhancing quality, and delivering person-centered care. It focuses on the action of empowering patients to manage their own conditions, highlighting resources such as therapeutic relationships, health literacy, access to health information, and self-management strategies. The essay reflects on the author's nursing practice, detailing the implementation of actions that promote effective communication, shared decision-making, and patient engagement in their own care. By acknowledging health literacy as a key element, the paper concludes that partnering with consumers is essential for improving health outcomes and ensuring the safety and quality of healthcare services. Desklib provides access to this and many other student-contributed assignments.

Partnering with Consumers

Introduction
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) has focused on
developing some important standards and actions that are important for resolving many safety
and quality issues in healthcare. Partnering with Consumers is an important safety and quality
standards that helps in maintaining the safety and quality of the care and support that is
provided to patients, families and carers. Partnering helps in applying evidence-based
knowledge and interventional strategies to improve the health and well-being of the
individuals. This paper will discuss the action of empowering consumers and helping them to
manage their own condition.
Important Resources
ACSQHC (2017) states that “Effective partnerships are linked to a positive experience for
patients, as well as high-quality health care and improved safety”. Therefore, it is significant
for promoting partnership with consumers to enhance their health outcomes. The most
important action that can be taken for partnering with consumers is empowering consumers
to manage their condition. It is very important to partner with consumers and mainly with the
individuals suffering with chronic conditions, as self-management is the most appropriate
strategy to help individuals suffering with chronic condition to improve their well-being and
functionality. The clinical resources related to empowering individuals in health system and
also helps in promoting person-centred approach to care are, developing therapeutic
relationship with patients, providing information to individuals regarding care and treatment
options, enhancing patients’ health literacy, implementing self-management programs,
supporting and encouraging consumers to access health information and effectively
implementing self-management strategies (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in
Health Care, 2017).
Resources Meeting Related Actions
According to the study of Zaga, Leggat, and Hill, (2018), partnering with consumers is highly
significant for providing the high-quality care and support. The study also identified that
action of empowering the patients and improving their self-management skills have resulted
in improving clinical outcomes of consumers, prevent hospital acquired infections and
improved health literacy that helps in improving adherence to treatment recommendations.
The resources like therapeutic relationship, enhancing health literacy of patients, enhancing

access to health information and implementing self-management strategies are very effective
in meeting the action of empowering patients and improving their health outcomes.
Newell and Jordan (2015) informed that partnering with consumers improved the
communication between the service providers and service receivers and significantly helped
in empowering patients to manage their own condition. The above-mentioned resources also
helped in promoting shared decision making, which is the most important aspect of providing
person centred care in healthcare. Truglio-Londrigan et al (2012) informed that Patient-
centred care is significant for maintaining the safety and quality of care provided to the
patient, it allows to develop effective partnership with consumers that is based on
understanding the preferences and needs of consumers. Farmer et al (2018) identified that
various actions taken for partnering with consumers are significantly based on improving the
confidence of the consumers and improving their self-management skills in order to promote
independence and improved functionality. Therefore, partnering with patients significantly
improve patient outcomes as it is focused on delivering various health promoting actions.
Partnering with consumers require the effective engagement and participation of the
consumers, as without consumer engagement person-centred care could not be provided.
Therefore, it is also vital that participation of the consumers from different background
should be promoted. This is also important to ensure that health services understand the
diverse needs and preferences of the patients and engage them in their own care. The actions
of promoting shared decision making, health literacy, implementing self-management
programs and strategies, and implementing self-management strategies tailored according to
individual needs are significant for partnering with patients and promoting person centred
care (Trevena t al, 2017). ACSQHC (2017), informs that providing “self-management
information, education, and support for consumers with an interest in managing their own
condition” (p, 3) is significant for developing effective partnership with consumers.
Effective Implementation of Actions at Workplace
After analysing the condition of the workplace, it has been identified that there are various
actions that are being implemented at workplace, such as the process of effective
communication is considered as highly significant and all healthcare professionals involve in
communicating effectively and appropriately with consumers. Communication help the
professionals to form partnership with consumers and promotes effective information
sharing. Analysing personal skills and knowledge, it is important to inform that I have

significantly applied various actions that helps in partnering with consumers. In my own
nursing practice, I have focused on promoting safety and quality of the care and support for
the patients. It is because, safety and quality of care is directly associated with the quality of
the patient outcomes (Sherwood and Barnsteiner, 2017). The study conducted by Wilson,
Kenny and Dickson-Swift, (2018) informs that for developing the effective partnership with
the consumers, it is very important that healthcare professionals understand the significance
of consumer participation in decision making and accessing health information (Stewart,
2016). Therefore, I focus on engaging patients, families and carers in decision making
process, understanding different treatment options, informing about their own preferences
and enhancing their health literacy.
Gill and Gill (2015) states that “the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
stipulate that partnering with consumers is a central component of safe, high-quality care,
and a performance indicator against which health care organisations will be assessed and
accredited” (p, 134). Although, it is believed that partnering in healthcare can be very
complex and challenging, as it requires professionals to actively involve the consumers on all
levels of care decisions and implementation and requires consumers to accept the
responsibility of their own health and well-being. Therefore, within my nursing practice, I
ensure that I promote partnership and support individuals to understand their own strengths
and participate in self-management. The main aim of partnering with consumes to improve
their health and maintain the safety and quality of care. Therefore, health literacy is
acknowledged as the key element in communicating health information and treatment options
and to make consumers aware of the significance of treatment and medication compliance
(ACSQHC, 2017).
Conclusion
This paper discussed the significance of partnering with consumers to maintain the safety and
quality of healthcare as well as to deliver person centred care. The action of empowering
patient for managing their own condition is discussed to reflect on the significance of topic
and reflect on own nursing practice.

Bibliography
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) 2017. Partnering
With Consumers: Action Guide. Sydney. Accessed 22 September, 2018. Available at:
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/3-Partnering-with-
consumers.pdf
Farmer, J., Bigby, C., Davis, H., Carlisle, K., Kenny, A. and Huysmans, R., 2018. The state
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health services. BMC health services research, 18(1), p.628.
Gill, S.D. and Gill, M., 2015. Partnering with consumers: national standards and lessons from
other countries. The Medical Journal of Australia, 203(3), pp.134-136.
Newell, S. and Jordan, Z., 2015. The patient experience of patient-centered communication
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Sherwood, G. and Barnsteiner, J. eds., 2017. Quality and safety in nursing: A competency
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Zaga, C., Leggat, S. and Hill, S., 2018. Partnering with consumers in the public reporting of
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