INTRODUCTION
Standards of practice (SOPs) promote excellence within a nursing specialty and ensure continued competence is achieved, reviewed, and updated at a minimum of every 5 years.1 Standards are authoritative statements developed by professional associations to ensure specialist nurses, such as Nurses Specialized in Wound, Ostomy and Continence (NSWOCs), are aware of what they are accountable for in their daily practice.2 The first set of standards for NSWOCs were developed in 1997 by Nurses Specialized in Wound, Ostomy and Continence Canada (NSWOCC) (formerly named The Canadian Association for Enterostomal Therapy) and revised in 2016.3 The delivery of healthcare throughout Canada is evolving, leading to increased recognition and emphasis on the trispecialty of wound, ostomy, and continence care. Therefore, it is imperative that SOPs be updated accordingly to ensure evidence-based practice is maintained across the continuum of care and throughout Canada to increase safe practice and optimize patient outcomes.
STANDARDS OF PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT
A literature search was conducted in February 2020; the search was led by an NSWOC in collaboration with master's students from Queen's University. Seven databases were searched including CINAHL, EMBASE, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, Nursing and Allied Health on ProQuest, PsycINFO, and PubMed. In addition, 20 relevant organizational and provincial Web sites and libraries were used to retrieve articles in English with no date restriction using the following key search terms: wound, ostomy and continence; standards of practice; and scope of practice. A committee of 20 NSWOCs was assembled to review 101 articles; 74 were included in our updated SOPs. Emerging themes led to the development of 4 new standards in addition to updating the existing 12 standards (Table). A Quadruple Aim framework (Figure) was used by the committee to ensure quality improvement was consistently incorporated into the development of the revised SOPs. References for the SOPs were independently verified by 2 committee members. An e-mail invitation to provide anonymous feedback was sent to all NSWOCC members. Thirty-seven NSWOCs completed the survey via SurveyMonkey (San Mateo, California) and feedback was incorporated into the final document, with 95% of respondents stating they would recommend these standards to NSWOC colleagues in Canada. The updated SOPs were approved by the NSWOCC's Board of Directors in December 2020.
IMPLEMENTATION
The aim of this document is to provide Canadian NSWOCs with current SOPs to ensure the delivery of safe, high-quality care by the most appropriate healthcare practitioner. The committee strongly recommends these SOPs be referenced and incorporated into policy at all levels of care including individual, organizational, and provincial. The full SOPs are available at: http://nswoc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/NSWOCStandards_FINAL_HiRes.pdf.
SUMMARY
This document is intended for NSWOCs in all healthcare settings throughout Canada to provide role clarification. Use of this document ensures NSWOCs are working within their scope of practice in order to provide high-quality care and optimize patient outcomes.
REFERENCES