Nursing Care ManagementNurses must frequently apply various management principles while caring for their clients in various health care settings. This unit has been crafted to clarify these issues. It begins with a comprehensive view of nursing practice standards as well as legal and ethical aspects of nursing. Client care management issues such as determining priorities, working with the health care team, making assignments, and coordinating client care as the client progresses from admission through discharge have been described along with valuable principles to facilitate the nurse's application of this information. Safety considerations regarding fire, electricity, equipment, and the use of physicalrestraints have been incorporated. This unit also includes selected principals and interventions related to specific aspects of care such as body mechanics, transfer techniques, positioning, application of cold and heat, asepsis, and the care of clients who develop or are at risk for pressure ulcers. STANDARDS OF NURSING PRACTICE Nursing practice is a direct service that is goal directed and adaptable to the needs ofthe individual, family, and community during health and illness. Professional practitioners of nursing bear primary responsibility and accountability for the nursing care clients receive. The purpose of the Standards of Nursing Practice is to fulfill the profession'sobligation to provide and improve this practice. The Standards focus on practice.They provide a means for determining the quality of nursing a client receivesregardless of whether such services are provided solely by a professional nurse or bya professional nurse and nonprofessional assistants. The Standards are stated according to a systematic approach to nursing practice: the assessment of the client's status, the plan of nursing actions, the implementation ofthe plan, and the evaluation. These specific divisions are not intended to imply thatpractice consists of a series of discrete steps, taken in strict sequence, beginningwith assessment and ending with evaluation. The processes described are used concurrently and recurrently. Assessment, forexample, frequently continues during implementation; similarly, evaluation dictatesreassessment and re-planning. These Standards for Nursing Practice apply to nursing practice in any setting. Nursing practice in all settings must possess the characteristics identified by these Standards if clients are to receive a high quality of nursing care. Each Standard is followed by a rationale and assessment factors. Assessment factors are to be used in determining achievement of the standard.