Standardized Language In Nursing

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I had not given much thought to a standardized language of nursing until I began working on this post. As I researched the reasons for standardizing nursing languages I wondered why it had not been done yet. A consistent language is an essential safety net through all areas in the nursing profession. How can we provide adequate care if we are not talking the same language? Having one language would facilitate clear accurate communication between nurses and other health care providers. Having one common language provides the opportunity for clear communication, thus improving safety and continuity of patient care. My facility has taken a proactive stance in standardizing nursing language within our sister facilities through the implementation …show more content…
His tone indicated he was upset with me and he told me that was not very high and to not call him until it was over 200. Having standardized words for what is considered safe or high would clearly be in the benefit of the patient and nursing staff. As Rutherford states, “Use of standardized nursing languages promises to enhance communication of nursing care nationally and internationally.” (Rutherford, 2008). Another issue I have noticed in my facility is a disconnect with interpreting a rapid response. We have standards within our facility of when to call a rapid response but at times it seems to be open for interpretation. We recently had a patient who was unstable during the night and met the criteria for a rapid response but the nurses opted to intervene without a rapid response thus taking over an hour to transfer the patient to a …show more content…
In another occasion, we had a rapid response initiated on a post-surgical patient on the medical floor. As part of the protocol, we had called the surgeon and informed him of the patient’s unstable vitals to which he answered that if it was not related to his surgery he did not want to know about it. The patient was then transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), when the surgeon was informed of the rapid response, he stated that he would rather have his patient code than have a rapid response called again. Standardizing in the language used to define a rapid response would perhaps aide in bridging the interpretation of a rapid response, provide safer care for patients and safer practice for nurses. Acquired data from standardized language can be used to track problems and interventions and thus implement new protocols. “Patient-centered care, interprofessional collaboration, and informatics are necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes for nurses across educational levels in order to meet the needs of patients, and improve the quality and safety of the health care system environment”, (Boykind, 2014). We all seek one common goal we