Whether changing dressings or giving out medications: in nursing homes, all employees should work consistently. Nursing standards are the basis of professional care. „Each institution has the task of setting care standards itself and ensuring that everyone involved follows them,“ says Brigitte Rechert. As a nursing care manager, she is responsible for creating the standards and keeping them up-to-date at the Wohngemeinschaft für Senioren (WGfS) in Filderstadt. The experienced geriatric nurse explains what matters:
- Get an overview: „As in many institutions, we already had paper-based documentation of nursing activities in our house,“ says Rechert. The paper instructions filed in more than ten folders were mostly stored as Word or PDF documents on different drives. These files have gradually been updated by the trained palliative nurse and integrated into a digital document management system. Whether thrombosis prophylaxis or washing a bedridden patient – in the WGfS all guides are clearly arranged, based on always the same principle. This makes it easier to understand and who, for example, wants to read how often bedridden people have to do a full body wash quickly finds the information they are looking for.
- Check for completeness
If all existing instructions are formulated as standards and sorted digitally, it is important to determine for which tasks documents are still missing. It helps if the employees of each department check for a few days whether there is a standard of care for all tasks that occur during the course of the day. „Lack of standards should be prioritized,“ advises Rechert. This means that situations that often occur are primarily documented; Less frequent tasks have a lower priority. - Include employees
Although Rechert is the main person responsible for care standards at her employer. „But creating everything on your own and keeping it up to date is difficult to achieve.“ That’s why all our colleagues are involved. For example, if you want to set a new standard for motion exercises, those who perform this task most often take on the documentation. If a specialist identifies a gap in a description, she will fill in the missing information after consultation with Rechert. - Observe generally valid rules
In order to ensure that the standards are legally secure and compliant, Rechert checks technical specifications and quality manuals. In addition, her house is a member of the Federal Association of Private Providers of Social Services (bpa). „As soon as a legal requirement changes, for example, we receive a written notification from the bpa,“ explains the 54-year-old. The relevant documentation will be adapted accordingly. Associations also offer employee training for more extensive topics. - Make it accessible to all
Every employee can log into the digital document management system on a PC with user name and password. „Software manages the care standards and works with rights and roles,“ explains Rechert. Only authorized persons, such as executives, can change documents. Depending on which role is assigned to an employee, he or she can either only see guidelines from his / her own department or, in addition, descriptions of other departments. A search function makes it easy to find documents. - Understand and apply
Around 250 employees work at WGfS. In addition to the care, this also includes departments such as home economics or general administration. „Each area has its own standards,“ says Rechert. In meetings and through surveys, supervisors ensure that their teams understand the guides and apply them correctly. „Especially with new colleagues, we pay attention during training to get to know and apply the documented requirements.“ - Update regularly
Digitization is also progressing at WGfS. „In the past, colleagues spent about 30 percent of their working time on the legally required nursing documentation, today they can do this much faster using tablets,“ says Rechert. Innovations, such as this change in care documentation, must be considered and described in the standards. Everyone at WGfS is responsible for keeping documentation up-to-date.
