Duty of care and political expectations. Part 5: standards and clinical outcomes.
The previous article ended by raising the question of how 'standards' are being defined, developed and regulated according to Government expectations as expressed in Department of Health literature. The context of the enquiry is to try and correlate the legal definition and expectations that underpin our understanding of the 'standards' of behaviour expected of us in our nursing practice - with the political expectations that the current Government have brought into being. The last article recognized how the literature explored had been produced at the beginning of the Government's '10 year plan', and that in this respect the language would be rhetorical and aspirational. We are now eight years on from the promise of a new dynamic 'patient-centred' NHS, so maybe it is possible to reflect on ways in which nurses and other health providers have instigated the Government's directed health delivery programmes, and have been affected by the changes brought about by political command.
Nursing Law and Politics, Faculty of Health, London South Bank University.
Suzanne
S
Fullbrook
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003256:Community Participation; D033161:Government Regulation; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D011057:Politics; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011639:Public Opinion; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*