Nursing Policy and procedure manuals

dansamy · Aug 3, 2013

We use Smith & Duells for clinical procedures.

Clinical Nursing Skills (8th Edition) (SMITH'S CLINICAL NURSING SKILL)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/013511473X/ref=cm_sw_r_an_am_ap_am_us?ie=UTF8

Facility policies would be a huge undertaking solo.

Altra, BSN, RN · Aug 3, 2013

For clinical nursing procedures your policies can reference a widely accepted nursing textbook, as dansamy noted in the post above.

However, your policies are going to need to reflect the mental health laws in your state and applicable laws/regulations of your local and state health departments and Joint Commission, if you are accredited by them. This also should not be done unilaterally by nursing alone -- you will need to work with your medical director, other disciplines who play a role in the patients' care, and whoever in your organization is responsible for regulatory compliance.

It will be a large undertaking; however, if the facility has already been cited for deficiencies, it MUST be a priority. Failure to correct previously cited items would likely have a negative effect on the facility and its management team, and that now includes you.

SaoirseRN · Aug 3, 2013

Also perhaps consider the possibility of making this into an online (intranet) based policy and procedure system. A big undertaking at first, but then individual policies could be re-done on a case by case basis and a digital format is easier to keep up to date.

Kstayce630 · Aug 4, 2013

Thank you guys so much! The suggestions are much needed and greatly appreciated. Our facility is joint commission accredited so I'm positive their rules and regulations need to be incorporated. I am trying to promptly get the ball rolling so that the manual is made before the next survey.

Any other help would be greatly appreciated.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Aug 5, 2013

What is your facility's policy on policies? Srsly - there needs to be one approved by top level (CEO, Board, etc) folks. How are P&P supposed to be developed & approved? You need to make sure that this is followed. Who needs to be involved in the development process? If your organization has a 'regulatory specialist' who serves as the subject matter expert for JC, CMS, etc, you need to involve her/him at least. Have you reviewed the previous JC survey findings to make sure that any deficiencies have been addressed?

For clinical procedures, it is much easier to simply adopt a nursing reference for your clinical specialty.

Kstayce630 · Aug 8, 2013

Thank you Houston! I will ask all of those questions!!! I'm so grateful please send me more questions n advice if you can

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Aug 8, 2013

Not an adolescent psych specialist by any means (got my kids through adolescence without killing them, and figured that's accomplishment enough). However, I do have a few suggestions.

1) Go to the professional nursing organization that would be most applicable to your specialty and search for their standards of practice. Bound to be a good resource for you.

2) If you don't have them in hand already, go online and pull the applicable state and federal regs for your kind of facility

3) Check in the yellow band above for Specialty > Psych Forum, and ask there.

As for clinical policies, best recommendation I ever heard was from a colleague whose facility P&P manual was three pages long. Once you got past staffing, payroll, and suchlike, the next page said, "For all clinical procedures, see the Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice," and every floor had a copy. I loved that.