Each week in the lead up to Accreditation, Northern Health will focus on a different Standard. You will hear from the Chairs of each Standard Committee on what you need to know.

This week we spoke to Lisa Cox, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, about Standard 5: Comprehensive Care.

What is this standard about?

Standard 5 is aimed at ensuring patients receive care that is based on their individual care needs and considers the whole person in that care. It also aims to ensure that each patient is assessed at the beginning and during their care for any risks of harm. These risks are then mitigated though interventions developed with the patient and family.

At Northern Health, this standard covers nine key areas:

• Assessment and developing a comprehensive care plan
• Providing comprehensive care at end of life
• Preventing falls and harm from falls
• Preventing and managing pressure injuries
• Nutrition and hydration
• Preventing delirium and managing cognitive impairment
• Predicting, preventing and managing self-harm and suicide
• Predicting preventing and managing aggression and violence
• Minimising restrictive practices – restraint and seclusion

What are the top 5 ways staff can be prepared for Accreditation against this Standard?

All patients on admission need to be assessed using the admission form and risk assessments.  A care plan is then developed based on this initial assessment. It is important that all staff providing clinical care review the plan of care each day to understand each patient’s individual care requirements, identified risk(s) and ensure strategies are in place to minimise patient harm. There are specific harms that are identified in this standard and they are:

• Pressure injuries
• Falls
• Poor nutrition
• Cognitive impairment
• Self-harm and suicide risk
• Unpredictable behaviour

The plan of care developed for each patient must consider these potential risks and ensure that they are protected from harm. More importantly the care plan needs to be developed with the patient ensuring decisions made about their care is shared.

What are the top 5 questions staff needs to be able to answer about this Standard?

• What is your patient’s/consumer’s specific goal for the day, what matters to them?
• What does your patient/consumer want to achieve by, being in hospital or using the community (Hospital without Walls) service?
• What is your patient’s/consumer’s risk(s)?
• What interventions and plans do you have in place to minimise harm from these identified risks?
• Does the patient/consumer and/or their family/carer/nominated support person understand their risks?

To learn more about Standard 5, please see the Intranet.