Nursing Standards Of Practice Essay

ANA Standards of Practice Journal Assignment

Nursing Standard

Standard 9: Communication:

The registered nurse meets the standards of professional practice by communicating effectively in all areas of their practice. The nurse meets the guidelines mentioned in the former by not only assessing their own communication skills, but also by maintaining communication with the entire interdisciplinary team. Additionally, the registered nurse displays communication styles which embody care, respect, listening, authenticity, and trust to all patients. Overall, the registered nurse strives to not only meet all communication competencies, but also ensures to endeavor towards continuous improvement of their overall communication skills (American Nurses

Association, 2015).
Specific Example:
I have observed a copious amount of positive experiences with the standard of communication at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital over the course of my preceptorship. The registered nurse I was working with not only worked alongside/communicated with the healthcare interprofessional team to promote quality patient care- but also did so in a manner that promoted effective communication with the pediatric patients as well. A specific example of the standard mentioned in the former would include when I watched the nurse administer medications to a patient that was not too excited to receive it. The registered nurse handled this situation with a high quality of the standard of communication in mind. She spoke to the patient in the level of their cognitive ability and allowed the child to have a choice of how he would have rather received the medication. In this manner, the nurse was able to meet her order and the patient did not feel forced or confused as to why they had to take this medication in order to ‘feel better’ (American Nurses Association, 2015).
Performing the Standard:
From the mentorship of my preceptor, I have come to acquire a proficient technique on how to specifically handle communication between not only the child, but also the family unit as well.

Typically, a trend I have noticed is that the parents do not have an elementary idea of the procedure going to happen to their child, yet, rather a more medically in-depth one. The skill of the registered nurse in terms of teaching ability truly comes into play in this case because it allows one to not only, again, meet the desired order of educating the patient, but also to convey accurate information and manage the overall quality of care being delivered to the patient. Specifically, an example of the situation mentioned in the former that comes to mind is when I had to educate my patient’s mother, foster mother, and grandmother about why the patient had to undergo an esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). The patient’s mother had already signed consent for the procedure, but after speaking to all of them about it, it was clear that they all did not understand what exactly was going to happen to the patient, besides stating a highly intricate explanation of the procedure they wrote down- yet clearly did not understand. Using this specific example, it can be shown that the registered nurse can truly meet the standard of proper communication by not only “assessing the communication ability, health literacy, resources and preferences of the healthcare consumers”, but also by “demonstrating

caring, respect, deep listening, authenticity, and trust” by re-educating the clients about the procedure in simple laymen’s terms (American Nurses Association, 2015, pg. 71).

Clinical Evaluation Tool Standards:
Using the clinical evaluation tool, the standard of communication relates to my role as a registered nurse in my ability to be the provider of care with use of the nursing process to: document and report assessment findings, include the client/family/significant others in establishing goals of care, be able to collaborate with health care workers in the development of nursing care plans, interact with clients/families based on the knowledge of developmental levels and principles of therapeutic communications, use appropriate use of therapeutic communication skills, identify and resolve blocks in my own communication patterns, use/create opportunities with clients to teach health promotion, anticipatory guidance, education about the client’s illness or even self-care activities, and to collaborate with clients to identify actual/potential problems of health in daily living.
Additionally, the standard of communication relates to my role as a registered nurse in my ability to be the manager of care and to: promptly report and record changes in the client’s problems or in the client’s state, use appropriate channels of communication to provide continuity of care, interact with members of staff, student groups, and faculty in a collegial manner, and delegate nursing care of clients to other nursing care workers.
Lastly, the standard of communication relates to my role as a registered nurse in my ability to be a part of the member of discipline by: reporting to the clinical instructor and designated nursing staff members when leaving the clinical area, and providing a report on the client’s current condition to the clinical instructor or designated staff member when leaving the clinical area for any reason.
Ensuring Positive Outcomes:
I will further work toward achieving a positive outcome for this standard in the future by, again, not only recognizing non-therapeutic communication, but also promoting therapeutic communication when it comes to assessing the patients, administering the patients medications, teaching the patients, and meeting all the objectives stated in the former.