Nurses are at the heart of health and care, playing a pivotal role across diverse settings and working as key members of a person’s health and care team. With care provided by so many team members in different settings, information about the person is key and standardisation is a key tool to empower nurses to provide the best possible care, benefiting patients and the entire health and care system.  

It is estimated that nurses spend more than 25% of their time on administration and looking for documentation to inform care. The PRSB’s Nursing Care Needs Standard reflects best practice and standardises documentation across different nursing settings, helping free nurses from the administrative burden of repetitive data entry and giving them more time to provide care. It also helps people and their families avoid having to ‘tell their story’ repeatedly. 

It standardises information that a nurse in a care home or community setting can access and share in the same way as a mental health or hospital nurse, with a focus on the person’s overall wellbeing. Using the standard will also reduce unwarranted variation across the nursing profession and support the delivery of quicker and more effective care.  

The standard was developed based on extensive consultation with multidisciplinary professionals and clinical system suppliers which helped inform the structure and content of information that should be shared as part of the nursing documentation. The scope focuses on eating and drinking, mobility, elimination (toileting and continence), personal hygiene and dressing, skin, and medication self-management.  

Helen Balsdon, Interim Chief Nursing Information Officer at the NHS England, who was involved in the development of the standard, said: “A unified approach to nursing practice across care ensures consistency and amplifies the patient voice in their own care journey. By having a standard, we can begin to create a seamless care experience.” 

Professor Maureen Baker CBE, Chair at the PRSB, added: “Nursing is fundamental to delivering high quality care whether in hospital, or the community, and so it’s crucial that we support nurses’ work as much as possible. To do this, it is key that we recognise the administrative burden of documenting and sharing care information on nurses and provide them with solutions that make their working lives easier, more efficient and rewarding. The PRSB’s Nursing Care Needs Standard will help nurses have the information they need at their fingertips, enabling them to make informed decisions and deliver timely and safe care.”  

Find out more about the standard: https://theprsb.org/standards/nursingcareneeds/.