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Summary
The Code, published by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2008), provides standards of performance and ethics for nurses and midwives, and is a means of safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the public. Guidance from the NMC may appear relatively straightforward, however it can be difficult to implement in practice. This article identifies specific challenges that nurses may be presented with when adhering to The Code, as well as more general issues in interpreting the standards.
Keywords
Accountability, code of conduct, nurse-patient relationship, professional conduct, responsibility
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THE NURSING AND MIDWIFERYCouncil (NMC) is the regulator of nursing and midwifery in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was set up to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the public. All registered nurses and midwives are expected to abide by the professional standards set out in The Code: Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives (NMC 2008). This is an invaluable form of reference for nurses and it is vital that they understand what is expected of them, especially as the NMC will investigate any allegations made against nursing staff who have not adhered to it. The Code (NMC 2008) is organised under four main standards (Box 1), providing a series of expected behaviours on which practice is judged. This guidance contains qualities considered to be intrinsic to nursing, for example trust, respect and dignity, and therefore should be fairly straightforward to implement.
This article attempts to explore situations that may arise where the application of these standards pose more of a challenge. Nurses are professionally accountable to the public, patients, their employer and their profession (Hinchcliff et al 2008). They should, therefore, be able to provide rationale for their actions based on sound knowledge (Burnard and Chapman 1993).
In addition, nurses are accountable to themselves in situations where their ethical and moral position may conflict with recommendations put forward by the NMC (2008). One area that...