Healthcare professionals and organizations require standards of care since they describe the level of competence in the nursing process as a way of protecting and saving a life. Professional standards are vital in maintaining safety and proficiency evaluations for clinical units (Duffy, 2022). Standards of care can be used as a comparison tool on how nurses care for patients. It is easier for employers to identify nurses who do not follow guidelines established by the organization or who do not practice professional work conditions (Duffy, 2022). Hence, this enhances patient care, work safety, and trust among all stakeholders in clinical systems.
Standards of care are adopted in clinical care to promote patient safety and care. However, the standards used are not adequate since different challenges are escalating in clinical systems. The turnover rate in the healthcare systems is high, which makes current staff members experience a high workload that affects their performance (Ortaliza et al., 2022). This promotes understaffing, which affects the work culture, leading to poor performance and making patients unhappy.
In conclusion, standards of care guarantee competence that leads to patient care and safety maintenance. It is easier to delegate duties since clinical and medical practitioners maintain their professional standards by observing standards of care. Consequently, this improves patient care, workplace safety, and trust among stakeholders in a clinical environment. However, standards of care need to be revised since they cannot deal with the turnover rate experienced in the medical environment
References
Duffy, J. R. (2022). Quality caring in nursing and health systems: Implications for clinicians, educators, and leaders. Springer Publishing Company.
Ortaliza, J., Fox, L., & Claxton, G. (2022). How does cost affect care? Health System Tracker. Web.