Nursing Reflective Essay: Application of NSQHS Standards in Practice

This nursing reflective essay details a student's transition from a nursing student to a registered nurse, highlighting the anxieties and excitement associated with the new professional role. The essay reflects on the application of nursing practices learned during graduation, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive patient care and maintaining professional and therapeutic relationships. It evaluates the relevance of NSQHS (National Safety and Quality Health Service) standards in clinical practice, particularly those related to infection control and comprehensive care. The essay analyzes the principles of nursing, including patient confidentiality and staff collaboration. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adhering to NSQHS standards for improving health service quality and the author's commitment to continuous professional development. The author plans to focus on improving practice and adhering to all NSQHS standards.

Running head: NURSING REFLECTIVE ESSAY
NURSING REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Description
While transiting from the student nurses to the registered nurse, the nurse are not only
happy and excited but also they are afraid, anxious and uncertain about their new professional
life. At this time the nurses questions themselves about their abilities and whether this is the right
career choice or not (Kalb et al., 2015). I had gone through this phase when I started working as
the registered nurse in a hospital after completing my graduation in nursing. I was quite nervous
about the new responsibilities but however the nursing practices that I had learnt in my
graduation helped to overcome all the difficulties.
Feelings
During my graduation days, we were taught about the different nursing practices by
conducting experiments for taking care of patients. The learning phase of those practices went
extremely well but I was quite nervous while applying those practices in my professional life. It
is the responsibility of the nurse to provide a comprehensive care to the patients and maintain
both the professional and therapeutic relations at the same time. I am very happy to apply all my
knowledge of the clinical practices learnt while taking care of patients.
Evaluation
Most of the nursing practice that I had learnt during my graduation days are related with
the NSQHS standards. All of the standards of NSQHS had been prepared for the nurses to
improve their clinical practices. The standards of the NSQHS includes clinical governance
standards, partnering with the consumers standards, preventing and controlling the healthcare
associated infection standard, medication care standard, comprehensive care standard,
communication for safety standard, blood management standard and recognizing and

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responsibility to acute deterioration standards. Most of the nursing clinical practices are related
with the standards of comprehensive care standard and preventing and controlling the healthcare
associated infection standard. The nursing practices that I learnt involved different mechanisms
of infection control, providing accurate medicine to the patients and maintaining a therapeutic
communication both with the patient and the family members of the patient. I am very glad that
all of these practices helped me a lot while working as the professional nurse. I was taught the
ways to maintain a good relationship with patient otherwise they will not describe about the
health issues in details.
Analysis
The different experiments that were conducted for us, taught us the different principles of
nursing which includes that the nurses and the other nursing staffs should treat each other with
dignity and humanity. They must be responsible for their own judgments and actions and also in
managing the risks and keeping everyone safe. They must provide person centered care and
should maintain the confidentiality of the patients. They should develop themselves and also the
other staffs working in the hospital (Barbiani, Nora & Schaefer, 2016). The first standard of the
NSQHS emphasizes on the nursing practices to prevent the spread of infections. The standard
had informed us about the importance of the treating the patients suffering from infections
separately so the infection do not get spread to other patients (NSQHS, 2019). The standard also
informed us about the need to administer antimicrobials to the patients and the necessity of the
reprocessing the usable medical devices (Fey & Jenkins 2015). In the experiments also, we were
taught the same practices. If the devices that are used in the clinical practices are not cleaned
properly, the infection can get spread to other patients. At present I have become more conscious
about the infection control mechanisms and work accordingly so that the infection do not spread.

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I also follow the infection control mechanisms in my workplace so that the infection do not get
spread to other patients. The next NSQHS standard of importance is the standard of the
comprehensive care (NSQHS, 2019). This standard aims in ensuring that the patients are
receiving comprehensive healthcare to meet the individual needs as well as considering the
impact on the health issues on the wellbeing and life of people. In my nursing career I have faced
certain conditions where I had to take the help of other nurse or health professionals for
providing the patients with improved quality of care. Before developing the comprehensive care
plan for the patients I had to screen the risk properly, then do the clinical assessments. The
comprehensive care plan can be prepared accurately after the assessments are over. While
delivering the care services I make sure that the risk of pressure injuries, falls and improper
nutrition, cognitive impairment and unexpected behavior are reduced. All these practice that I
perform are related with the NSQHS standards (Low et al., 2015). Comprehensive care also
involves communicating effectively with the patients and also with the family members of the
patients. I normally talk with the patient politely so that they can tell about their health issues
without any hesitation.
Conclusion
The primary concerns of the NAQHS Standards is to protect the public as much as
possible to improve the quality of the health service problems. All of those standards are very
required to be followed by every nurses so that they can provide care services to their best. A
nurse who is already employed in hospital if do not provide adequate treatment to the patient can
become a reason for deteriorating the reputation of the hospital. I had improved my nursing
practices after I started following the NSQHS standards and I think in order to improve the
nursing practices, all nurse must follow the NSQHS nursing standards.

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Action plan
After following the nursing standard, I can say that my confidence has increased a lot
about the different procedures involved in taking care of patients. Still I think I need to improve
in several aspects of nursing practices so that I can provide the patients with comprehensive care.
I will start working on my negativities and shall focus on the other NSQHS nursing standards. I
hope in future I will be able to overcome all the difficulties and will become a successful
professional nurse in future.

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References
Barbiani, R., Nora, C. R. D., & Schaefer, R. (2016). Nursing practices in the primary health care
context: a scoping review. Revista latino-americana de enfermagem, 24.
Fey, M. K., & Jenkins, L. S. (2015). Debriefing practices in nursing education programs: Results
from a national study. Nursing Education Perspectives, 36(6), 361-366.
Kalb, K. A., O'Conner-Von, S. K., Brockway, C., Rierson, C. L., & Sendelbach, S. (2015).
Evidence-based teaching practice in nursing education: Faculty perspectives and
practices. Nursing education perspectives, 36(4), 212-219.
Low, L. F., Fletcher, J., Goodenough, B., Jeon, Y. H., Etherton-Beer, C., MacAndrew, M., &
Beattie, E. (2015). A systematic review of interventions to change staff care practices in
order to improve resident outcomes in nursing homes. PloS one, 10(11), e0140711.
NSQHS. (2019). Retrieved 22 August 2019, from
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-04/National-Safety-and-
Quality-Health-Service-Standards-second-edition.pdf
NSQHS. (2019). The NSQHS Standards | Australia Commission on Safety and Quality in
Healthcare. Retrieved 22 August 2019, from
https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/standards/nsqhs-standards