Nursing groups review standards of care
The initiative, called Standards of Nursing care for Nursing Homes, comes in the wake of revelations last May of mistreatment of elderly patients at Leas Cross, a Co Dublin nursing home. The home was closed by the owner two months ago.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the facility is now complying with regulations.
Project manager Eithne Ní Dhomhnaill said nurse managers had been working to improve standards in recent years. “We want to get them all together now so that we can adopt a more collaborative approach,” she said. “While it is not a specific response to Leas Cross, we decided to go public because, as nurses working in nursing homes, we would be very conscious of the bad press that is out there and people may have some fears because of the publicity.
“We are now putting a system in place where we identify best practice in nursing care for patients, based on best international research and guidelines,” she said. “We want people to feel confident that no matter what nursing home they choose for their relative there should be no difference in the level of care that they receive.”
Audit tools will be developed for each standard. This means standards set for various treatments will be regularly checked to ensure that they are maintained.
Ms Ní Dhomhnaill said the internal mechanism of quality improvement would be in addition to rigorous new inspection standards now being applied. “It is a form of self-governance from the bottom up.”
Ms Ní Dhomhnaill said they also wanted to work with organisations who had an interest in the area, including the Irish Health Service Accreditation Board, the Health Information and Quality Authority, the HSE and older people’s campaign groups.
