Nursing Care Needs Standard
Standardise/reduce unwarranted variation in the documentation of a nursing assessment in hospital, community, and nursing homes and share this information across health and care.
Contents
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Also known as
- Digital Nursing Standard
- Status
- Active
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Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.
Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Information standards
Show definitions of standard types
Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.
Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.
Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.
Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
- Contact point
england.standards.assurance@nhs.net
Using this standard
The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) were commissioned by NHS England to develop the following set of resources. These have been migrated into the NHS Standards Directory and will be managed by NHS England from 01 January 2026.
- Associated medias
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Care records
- Care setting
- Care home
- Community health
- Hospital
Legal basis
- Licence information
This standard is owned by NHS England and is made available for reuse or amendment under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL 3.0).
- Licence
Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL 3.0) https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
More information
The standard aims to make a nursing assessment accessible at the point of care, should the persons move between places of care.
About this standardThe Nursing Care Needs Standard aims to improve the quality and safety of care in key nurse-led areas, including care planning. It reflects best practice and standardises documentation across different nursing settings, to free nurses and give them more time to care. For example, 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.
People tell us that nursing care documentation is an important source of information about their health and care needs, their strengths, and the goals they want to achieve. It describes their quality of life and how this can be improved given their health and care circumstances and underlying conditions. This standard will enable more personalised care provision and enable better self-care.
A standard that allows the exchange of information between IT systems will also enable sharing of standardised information between nurses and other health and social care professionals in the persons’ circle of care for continuity and more timely care delivery.
ScopeThe standard is focused on eating and drinking, mobility, elimination (toileting and continence), personal hygiene and dressing, skin, and medication self-management.
The care settings in scope are:- Hospital
- Community
- Nursing home
- Mandating which specific risk assessment tool should be used for an assessment.
- Nurse treatment plans used by Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) and Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP) and in non-inpatient care settings.
- Midwifery
- Neonatal care
- Mental health nursing
(However, mental health settings may also need to assess functional needs – therefore, this standard should be used where relevant).
Page last updated: 17 December 2025