Standards of care

Can someone please give me a definition of "Standards of care"?

Are the Standards of care the policy and procedures of the facility?

Are the Standards of care what a "reasonable and prudent nurse" would do in a similar situation?{which is up to interpretation any way right?}

Are the Standards of care the care plan interventions?

So,what are the Standards of care?

actually stawman, standards of care are not a subjective interpretation of what a reasonable and prudent nurse would do in a similar situation. your state nurse practice act dictates the minimum standards of care and is pretty much your bible (or mine anyway). the ncp does not address standards of care but specific interventions for specific patient diagnosis. to keep it short and sweet, they are the minimum level of performance that your bon deems appropriate and expects from the professional nurse.

And many of those state Nurse Practice Act "standards of practice" can be pretty specific....

Our "Standards of Care" are the same as our protocols. For instance there are protocols for "Care of the Diabetic Patient" "Care of the Ventilated Patient" on and on and on. These are the standards that the hospital has set as guidelines for us to follow. They basically are how we do our job.

A standard of care tells you what care should be provided for particular patient situations. They can come from the board of nursing, specialty organizations, and can be established by your particular organization. When writing a protocol, standards are often the "springboard", then the protocol is individualized for your facility's practice, and should be based on nursing science and research. For example, in our critical care dept, we often use AACN standards as our foundation. Our CNS will then do a literature search for the most current practice recommendations, which we incorporate into our protocols.

Some other definitions:

policy= administrative guidelines for certain situations (e.g. dress code, attendance, how AMA is handled, etc)

procedure= step by step directions for performing a task (e.g. how to insert and NG tube)

protocol= ongoing nursing management for a particular situation (e.g. how to care for a patient with an NG tube)

Well thank you for your thoughtful replies.It seems Standards of Care come from a variety of sources,yes? If someone asked me ,"What is the standard of care for this patient?" I would refer them to the Nurse Practice Act,which I have no ideas where I would locate that,I guess I would have to write the state for it,or I could tell them to check the facilities protocols or the careplan.

Thank you.