3806NRS Professional Nursing Practice

Introduction

The “Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare” (ACSQHC)is the corporate commonwealth government agency as well as a significant part of the health portfolio. The commission is accountable to the Australian parliament. It works in partnership with clinicians, patients, the Australian nation, health system of state and territory followed by private sector healthcare organization for achieving high quality, sustainable and safe health system (Waring et al., 2016). The commission coordinates and leads the national improvement regarding quality and safety in the healthcare context by developing the framework for high and safe quality care with core principles (Safety. Quality. Every person. Everywhere. Every time., 2019). With the purpose of contributing towards better health outcomes as well as experience for all consumers and patience, the commission targets to improve sustainability and value in the health system by ensuring that each and every people in the nation receive health care properly. Consumer-centered care, information-driven approach and safe organization are the three core principles that this commission follows. One of the significant standards developed by this commission for the protection of the public from any sort of harm and also for improving the quality of the health service provision is the “National Safety and Quality Health Service” (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care., 2021). This study targets to demonstrate a clear understanding of safety and quality in the context of healthcare through a critical analysis of standard 6 of the national safety and quality health service standards, communicating for safety.

Quality and Safety in the Australian health care system

Patient quality and safety can be summarized as correct care, at the correct place within the correct time and cost. The “Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare” (ACSQHC) defines patient safety as the act to prevent any error. Patient safety is also illustrated as the adverse impacts that are associated with health care (Safety and quality of health care - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2021). The commission defines patient quality as the overall degree towards which health services for the population and individual increase the likelihood regarding desired health outcomes and are henceforth consistent with the current knowledge related to the profession.

Quality in the healthcare context has been defined as doing the correct thing for the correct person with the best possible result. Safety and quality related to health care provided in the health system of Australia are of significant importance to each and every patient, their ears as well as their families. Research studies really that save as well as the high-quality health system in Australia provides the best value care as well as the most appropriate care that keeps the patients surely safe from any preventable harm (Dixit & Sambasivan, 2018). The “Australian Institute of Health and Welfare” states that safety and quality are significant in each and every area of the health system and across all the groups of population in the nation. Quality and safety are important in Australian health care since the “Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare” (ACSQHC) together with its standards targets to reduce and prevent errors, risk as well as the harm that occurs to the patient during health care provision (Allen et al., 2016). The cornerstone of the consideration of safety and quality as at most important discipline in the Australian context involves the target of continuous improvement based on knowledge and learning from adverse events and medical errors.

“National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards” developed by the “Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare” believes that patient safety is fundamental toward the delivery of quality essential services related to healthcare in Australia. The “Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare” (ACSQHC) revealed that there has been a rise in the awareness as well as investment regarding the safety and quality of healthcare service in Australia over the last few years. Quality and safety are being addressed as the part of core business within the healthcare organization of Australia which adheres to the Australian safety and quality framework for healthcare. The framework works on three major principles for ensuring the proper address of quality and safety. Consumer centered approach ensures that the patients can get the help they require. It also ensures that the healthcare professionals are responsible and respectful regarding patient values and requirements (Ritchie et al., 2020). Information-driven healthcare adopts the usage of current evidence as well as knowledge for guiding healthcare professional’s decisions regarding the quality of patient care. This principle ensures that high quality and save data and collected for improvement in the actions of the healthcare system. Finally, safety-organized health care required the health care professionals to make and understand safety as the central factor for facilitating function and operating on the provision of quality services.

Clinical care activity

Clinical care activity is the practice that is practiced for improving the care of nursing related to a specific standard. This section will discuss the clinical activity related to quality improvement in the Australian healthcare system.  One of the significant clinical care activities that are Central to the chosen NSQHS standard 6, communicating for safety, is patient safety management (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare -NSQHS Standards., 2017).

Patient safety management is the system adopted by health care or nursing professionals for actively seeking to minimize harm for the patient throughout their healthcare journey in the clinic or hospital (Lippke et al., 2019). Patient safety management is the system that is based on a set of beliefs as well as values followed by an assessment of patient needs and requirements together with their medical and complications. Communication among the clinicians and the patient or the family member of the patient is important to acknowledge and understand the condition of the patient, their treatment plan, and care which is directly connected to the quality of system success and health outcomes (Müller et al., 2018). The Australian healthcare system adhering to the standards of the “Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare” focuses majorly on patient safety and quality of care. Safety is inclusive of the approach related to the prevention of errors as well as adverse impacts to the patient who are associated with the process of healthcare (Australian Safety and Quality Framework for Health Care., 2010). The critical, as well as complex approaches related to diverse health challenges, have made the Australian healthcare system focus on the standards of national safety and quality health service to ensure clinical care activities.

Patient safety management is essential for clinical care improvement in the chosen standard of communicating for safety since effective communication involving both intrahospital and inter-hospital approach is significant for healthcare providers to ensure the protection of their patient (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare -NSQHS Standards, 2017). Patient safety management is a significant clinical care improvement under Standard 6 that needs to be adopted by the nurses to increase the efficiency of day-to-day operation as well as increasing the rate of the well-being of the patients under the healthcare (Codier & Codier, 2015). Communication is not only important for meeting patient safety management but also for understanding the requirements of the patient so that high quality and person-centered approach can be provided in the journey of safety management.

Low quality of care has a higher risk related to the burden of illness among patients thereby impact in overall patient safety management. The risk of low-quality care followed by reluctance among the nursing and healthcare professionals will hold back related to health improvement patients during their health care and medical journey (Jeong et al., 2017). Health care services and quality also contributes to rising health cost for patients who take a lot of time to be the cure and released from the services in hospitals or health institutions.

Approaches like accurate diagnosis, avoiding medication errors, safe and appropriate treatment, adequate training, and expert skill facilities for nurses followed by safe clinical practices and facilities will ensure the improvement of the overall quality in maintaining clinical care activity.

Driven by Information

The clinical care activity of patient safety management involves an integrated set of policies and what practices are being used for monitoring and improving the safety of the patient. The process of patient safety management recognizes the potential for errors that can occur by ensuring effective communication among the patient and the clinicians. This clinical care activity maintains a record of all the patient-related errors and evaluates all the information for identifying causes of the error (Jang et al., 2017). The entire process also includes collection, reviewing, and analyzing of data from the safety program facility the target of identifying corrective action as well as programs as per the requirements of the patient.

The Donabedian model is an effective tool that can be discussed on how the critical care activity procedure, as well as the outcome data, can be collected, analyzed as well as used for taking feedback in the improvements at clinical care. This model is a conceptual framework providing a platform for the effective and fruitful examination of health services followed by evaluation of quality in the healthcare setting (Sharew et al., 2020). This model is effective for use as a measure for assessing and comparing the quality of the health care provided under patient safety management. The model is effective in focusing on the procedure and outcome on how data can be collected, analyze, and used for improvement under the clinical care activity of patient safety management by the nursing professional with the means of standard 6 NSQHS, communicating for safety (Rupp, 2018).

Patient safety management system bi healthcare and nursing professionals can only be successful by the means of effective communication towards the provision of explicit, systematic as well as comprehensive procedures for the management of risk which the patients experience within the health care setting (Waterson, 2018). This critical care activity deciduous as well as the outcome of patient data can be collected by effective communication, analyzed by versus diagnosis formulation, and can be taken as feedback for the improvement of nursing interventions and strategies related to patient care quality in the clinical setting. The procedure of data collection and analysis in the patient safety management system is embedded within the culture of the organization and its major leadership from the top level to the ground level. Patient safety management adheres to standard 6 of “National Safety and Quality Health Service”, communicating safety (Safety and quality of health care - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2021). Successful and effective patient safety management involves the element of discovery and assessment of hazards of specific operations, specification of the hazards that are required to be managed, and collection of data to understand and recognize risk related to harm and medical errors followed by the environmental factors that impact the overall safety and health of the patient in care.

Conclusion

Standard 6 of the “National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard” focuses on communicating for safety. The standard targets to ensure purpose-driven, timely as well as effective communication together with documentation that supports coordinated, continuous as well as safe care for the patient. This assignment discussed the critical care activity of patient safety management that adheres to the standard effective communication is required for technology and understanding the need of patient by the nursing professionals to ensure the delivery of care by identification of the high-risk behaviors and time. The standard focuses on the system as well as the procedure to support communication at all the transactions of care where critical data emerges.  Focusing on the target and the mission of the “Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare”, this study on the discussion related to this standard in line with its application on patient safety management and discussion of quality and safety in the Australian healthcare system.

References

Allen, D., Braithwaite, J., Sandall, J., & Waring, J. (2016). Towards a sociology of healthcare safety and quality.

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. (2021). Retrieved 28 April 2021, from https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/partners/acsqhc-australian-commission-on-safety-and-quality-in-health-care

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare -NSQHS Standards. (2017). Retrieved 28 April 2021, from https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/sites/default/files/migrated/National-Safety-and-Quality-Health-Service-Standards-second-edition.pdf

Australian Safety and Quality Framework for Health Care. (2010). Retrieved 28 April 2021, from https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/publications-and-resources/resource-library/australian-safety-and-quality-framework-health-care

Codier, E., & Codier, D. (2015). A model for the role of emotional intelligence in patient safety. Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing, 2(2), 112.

Dixit, S. K., & Sambasivan, M. (2018). A review of the Australian healthcare system: A policy perspective. SAGE open medicine, 6, 2050312118769211.

Jang, H. E., Song, Y., & Kang, H. Y. (2017). Nurses' perception of patient safety culture and safety control in patient safety management activities. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration, 23(4), 450-459.

Jeong, H. S., Kong, J. H., & Jeon, M. Y. (2017). Factors influencing confidence in patient safety management in nursing students. Journal of the Korea Convergence Society, 8(6), 121-130.

Lippke, S., Wienert, J., Keller, F. M., Derksen, C., Welp, A., Kötting, L., ... & Hannawa, A. (2019). Communication and patient safety in gynecology and obstetrics-study protocol of an intervention study. BMC health services research, 19(1), 1-18.

Müller, M., Jürgens, J., Redaèlli, M., Klingberg, K., Hautz, W. E., & Stock, S. (2018). Impact of the communication and patient hand-off tool SBAR on patient safety: a systematic review. BMJ open, 8(8), e022202.

Ritchie, A., Gilbert, C., Gaca, M., Siemensma, G., & Taylor, J. (2020). Hospital librarians’ contributions to health services’ accreditation: An account of the health libraries for the national safety and quality in health services standards (HeLiNS) research project, 2016-18. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 69(2), 215-245.

Rupp, M. T. (2018). Assessing quality of care in pharmacy: remembering Donabedian. Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy, 24(4), 354-356.

Safety and quality of health care - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2021). Retrieved 28 April 2021, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/safety-and-quality-of-health-care

Safety. Quality. Every person. Everywhere. Every time. (2019). Retrieved 28 April 2021, from https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/

Sharew, Y., Mullu, G., Abebe, N., & Mehare, T. (2020). Quality of health care service assessment using Donabedian model in East Gojjam Zone, Northwest Ethiopia, 2018. African Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, 19(9), 157-165.

Waring, J., Allen, D., Braithwaite, J., & Sandall, J. (2016). Healthcare Quality and safety: a review of policy, practice and research. Sociology of Health & Illness, 38(2), 198-215.

Waterson, P. (Ed.). (2018). Patient safety culture: Theory, methods and application. CRC Press.

Looking for academic assignment samples online? Need professional paper writers to back you up with advanced resources and other addons? Here we are! MyAssignmenthelp.co.uk takes up the responsibility to provide you with the following backups every time, on the move. 

• Free samples 
• Signup bonus 
• Seasonal discounts 
• Free access to blogs & more 

So, now that you are aware of our potential and the numerous perks that we have got in store for you, take a smart call. Our assignment help services in the UK shall make sure to help you secure a straight A+ every semester.