Standards of Care in nursing need to be performed at their highest in all areas of medicine. The critical care areas are not the only areas that have patients who have critical issues. The critical care units are the areas that are more prepared for critical care emergencies and the nurses in these areas often have added credentials such as ACLS, PALS, and many others. My concern is med/surg, pediatrics, and the nursery deserve to have staff nurses with the same credentials. Pediatric patients go bad fast and they need staff who are knowledgeable and able to care for their needs, they need the highest standard of care possible just like those in the ER and ICU do. How do we establish this standard of care when med/surg and pediatric nurses don’t see the amount of trauma and pulseless non-breathers as the critical care units, making them less experienced with these situations? Nurses who have excellent health assessment skills can help improve this problem, because they are more able to see an abnormality and act on it before it becomes a critical care need.
Original Post:
December 4, 2008
Standard of Care
All nurses are duty bound to provide an exacting degree of care that a reasonable and prudent nurse under the same or similar circumstances would provide. However, depending on the setting, this standard’s bar may be raised, especially in critical care areas. Also, any nurse who has gone beyond the basic credentialing and achieved additional training has taken upon herself the duty to hold her or himself to a higher standard. Neglect or fluffing off care by cutting corners is absolutely inexcusable in these conditions. Critical care areas include the OR, ED, CCU, ICU, PACU and NICU. That is not to say that med/surg, rehab and OB, nursery, pediatrics, geriatrics and psych do not deserve the best of care either. Folks on these floors can all go south very quickly, but they are often thought to be more stable in these areas. References Lynch, Virginia A. and Duval, Janet Barber. (2006). Forensic Nursing. St. Louis: Elsevier Mosby
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