Australian Health Care Standards

Introduction

Healthcare systems genuinely desire to provide the best possible, error-free care and treatment without causing any injury or harm to their patients and families (Gluyas & Morrison, 2013). The Australian government thru the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHSC) gathered a remarkable set of standards to safeguard patients (ACSQHSC, 2014). National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS) are launched for the continual improvement and implementation of health practices and services with safety and consistency (Hamilton, Gibberd & Harrison, 2014). This discussion will be focusing the rationale for the implementation of national standards across Australia and three selected standards which

These settings have the greatest level of impact on our consumers – the public. Despite being in early years of practice, NSQHS had actually come a long way from its inception. It is designed to systematically align as a national structure the policies and operations of all healthcare institutions. This includes patients and their carer, clinical and non-clinical workforces and the health service managers and leaders working objectively together. The first landmark study; Quality of Australian Health Care Service by Wilson, Runciman, Gibberd, Harrison, Newby and Hamilton (1995) had discovered unacceptable percentage of patients suffering from preventable adverse events in our Australian healthcare institutions. This study propelled the commencement of a realization on the need to reform. Accreditation was chosen as the way to go to implement these regulations (ACSQHC, 2014). There are ten standards in NSQHS, which are all equal in importance and interlinked. These were tediously selected to ensure all bare essentials have been addressed. These standards covers areas where a “numerous patients have been involve, have a known gap that exists between current situation and best practice outcomes, or have evidence based approaches to be adopted and are achievable.” These standards will equip Australian health services a consistent

Patient participation in their care has proven to have a myriad of benefits including improved clinical outcomes, decreased healthcare acquired infections (HAI), increased compliance to treatment regimens, increased patient satisfaction resulting in reduced hospital costs and length of stay (Phillips, Street & Haesler, 2014; Arefian et. al, 2016). Priorities of patients and families may differ from that of the health services. Hence, the need to provide care that is respectful to patient’s preferences, needs and values. Health care organizations and policy makers will need to embrace new norms and make substantial changes in their culture, processes, and structure (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012). This can only be done through support from senior management and nursing leaders (Carman et al., 2012). In turn, nurses would be able to cater care to their patients. Nurses play an essential role to nurture patient’s motivation for participation. Nurses need to encourage confidence for patients to become more involved in their care, especially during medical rounds, updates and allow them not to be coerced into their treatment by giving holistic information to make an informed decisions. Nurses spend the most amount of time with patients and that time can be used to build rapport and share knowledge with their patients. Nurses would