Are your students prepared for a visit from the Joint Commission?

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations 1991 standards added emphasis on the nursing care agencies provide. When previous standards required the organization to demonstrate whether it had the means of providing good patient care in place, the new standards require that delivery of competent care can be verified. All nursing students must be knowledgeable of these standards because they provide a significant amount of nursing care and are present in health care organizations in significant numbers. This requires administrative planning between nursing schools and agency staff. This planning needs to include orientation of agency staff to educational objectives for each level of student and orientation of students to the agency and its policy and procedure manual.