Maintaining Professional Nursing Standards

Introduction

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the professional body which sets out standards and guidelines to regulate the nurses to work professionally to ensure effective care to the service users (www.nmc.org.uk, 2018). The NMC Code of Conduct is seen to support prioritisation of patients, ensure nurses practice effectively, preserve safety and promote professionalism and trust for the service users (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). Thus, they help to protect the public by ensuring that the nurses in the UK follow the mentioned guidelines in executing care practices. The adult nursing practices include psychological and physical care of the individuals throughout the ageing process starting from early adulthood (Halter et al. 2017). This nursing practice is well-being and health promotion of adults along with rehabilitation and sustenance of the adult individuals from their acute to long-term health problems. In this assignment, the way professional nursing standards and practices are to be maintained in executing adult nursing are discussed. Moreover, the regulatory framework which underpins the nursing services in adult nursing and their role in the field is also to be discussed.

Overview of Adult nursing and NMC

‘The adult nursing is referred by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as the nursing care practice which requires to look after the adults who are above the age of 18years and over in different setting with different level of dependency. In this type of nursing, the adults are provided mental as well as physical care for their acute illness to long-term diseased conditions (www.nmc.org.uk, 2018). The nurses to effectively care for the adults work within multi-disciplinary teams and develop care plans by assessing the patient’s health condition as well as their needs and demands of services. The NMC is seen to be the regulatory body for the adult nursing along with other types of nursing practices which acts to ensure effective care is given by the nurses for the adults by abiding with the professional standards in the UK (www.independentnurse.co.uk, 2018). In 2015, they have mentioned updated Code of Practices to be followed by the nurses in the UK to offer care services in adult nursing, mental nursing other fields to ensure proper care of the service users or the UK public and to remain in the UK as a registered nurse (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015).

Nursing Training

The role of NMC Code of Practices regarding nursing training under the domain of “Preserve Safety” informs that the nurses are to complete necessary training prior to execution of a new role to understand the limit of their competence (www.cddft.nhs.uk, 2015, www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). This is important because without training regarding a new role the nurses are unable to understand the limit of their ability to execute the care services in the field. It may lead them to execute wrong care which would hinder the health, in turn, the safety of the patient. As mentioned by Young et al. (2018), the adult nurses require understanding through training regarding the way they are to work within a multidisciplinary team for offering effective care to the patient. This is because training helps the nurses to know about the way collaboration and delegation within the multi-disciplinary team is to be established for providing effective care to the adult service users. Thus, prior to the recruitment of the adult nurses in a new role within the field they are required to be trained for helping them understand their competence level in the role to be followed to ensure safety of the patient as per the NMC Code of Practice.

Responsibility in risky situation

The role of NMC to response for a risk regarding the patients is explained under the domain of “Preserve Safety” where the nurses are asked to act without delay in case they believe the patient is at risk. Moreover, they are also asked to raise immediate concern in need of extra protection and support for a patient who is at risk or vulnerable to get harmed (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). In adult nursing, it is seen that often the disabled patients or mentally challenged adults are at increased risk of getting abused and harmed by the society and their family due to they being a care burden of care on them (Braye et al. 2017). Thus, nurses practising under adult nursing field in case of risk for the patients as per the NMC are required to alert officials and other regulatory bodies who are able to provide protection to the individual from harm or abuse. The steps mentioned are important to be taken as it avoids the abuse of the elderly in turn promoting their better well-being along with health and violation of them may result to suspension and loss of registration of the nurses to work in the UK by the NMC. For example, Kelvin Fore who was acting as an adult nurse was struck off his registration by the NMC. This is because he was seen to fail to provide support and care to 20-year old women who was physically challenged and has learning disability as well as did not take any step to avoid her from neglect or harm (www.bbc.com, 2013). This led him to violate the domain of "Preserve safety" under the code of practice making to get unregistered as nurses within the UK.

Maintaining records and professional registration

The NMC’s role in relation to maintaining a professional register is informed under the domain of “Practice effectively” where it is mentioned that the nurses are to keep clear as well as accurate records which are relevant to their care practices (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). This is required to help the nurses have information regarding facts to be used in resolving complex situation and offer better care practices to the patients. In adult nursing, there are various complex health problems being faced by the adults which required effective strategic care to be used (Faithfull et al. 2016). The recording of such information is important to help the adult nurses make easier and valid decision-making for assuring health improvement of the elderly in their practice. The NMC’s role of offering support and guidance to the practitioners is explained under the domain of “Practice effectively” where they are asked to work cooperatively by supporting other colleagues who are facing problem with accomplishing proper care for the service users. The nurses are asked to share information for reducing risk for the patients as a result of confusion or problem in practice by the nurses (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). This is important in adult nursing as it is going to help the nursing practitioners to ensure smooth care for the adult service users for their effective well-being and improved health (Middle and Miklancie, 2015).

Code of Conduct

The NMC’s role in producing a code of conduct is already done by them in 2015 by publishing guidelines and regulations to be followed by the nurses under four domains to remain working as a registered nurse. The four domains mentioned are “Prioritise people”, “Preserve safety”, “Practice effectively” and “Promote professionalism and trust” (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). This is important for the adult nurses to be considered and followed as violation of any of the guidelines and regulation mentioned in the domains would lead to lose their registration making them unable to work as a nurse within the UK. The misconduct in nursing by violating the code of practice would result nurses to face loss of registration to work in the UK. This is evident from the account of Shropshire midwives where due to their misconduct of being unable to care for a mother and child the NMC unregistered them, in turn, making them unable to work as a nurse within the UK (www.bbc.com, 2019).

Confidentiality

The confidentiality means keeping information about a person's secret (Petrova et al. 2016). The NMC to address the issues of confidentiality has mentioned under the domain of “Prioritise people” that patients are to be informed regarding the way their personal information is being used and consent are to be taken from them as well as their families as far the law mentions for sharing information (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). Thus, the adult nurses to ensure confidentiality of the patients are to take prior permission for sharing their information by referring them about the way and need of the information to be shared. Moreover, NMC’s Code of Practices informs that the nurses are able to override the confidentiality of the patients only under the best interest and protection of the service users (Duff and Patterson, 2017). This means that the adult nurses are allowed overriding the confidentiality of the patients under care if it is for the safety and protection of the services users and for the best interest for their health. The confidentiality of the patients in adult nursing is important to ensure safety and avoid abuse or harm to the individuals due to exposure of their personal or medical information in the society. The confidentiality breach would lead NMC to suspend the nurses of their duties (www.nmc.org.uk, 2018). This is evident because the NMC suspended Mark Henry Newman for nine months who are suspected to breach confidentiality of the patients for the business interest (www.chesterstandard.co.uk, 2015).

Individual care

The individual care for the patient refers to the services offered to the patient for healing them by meeting their particular needs to ensure they have improved health condition (Peterson and DiCenso, 2016). The NMC manages the issue of individual care through the domain of “Prioritise people” mentioned in the code of practice. There it is mentioned that the nurses are required to execute care services that are in the best interest of the people by identifying their needs and demands (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). This is important to be followed by nurses in adult nursing as offering individual care to adult patients helps to offer them care service satisfaction. The lack of individual care results adult nurses in any nursing field to neglect the needs of the service users making them face suspension from work by the NMC. This is evident as Mr Houston who was a learning disability nurse while caring for adult members in the hospital was seen in the CCTV to show striking abuse to adult learning disability patients. It result him to face 18 months ban from the NMC which barred him to practice in the UK within the tenure (www.irishnews.com, 2018).

Managing vulnerable people

The vulnerable people are those individual who are children or above the age of 18 unable to take their own care (Drozd and Clinch, 2016). The lack of protection of the vulnerable people by the adult nurses makes the individuals exposed to get abused or harmed. This results in deteriorating the health conditions of the individuals which leads them to experience increased hospital stay and medical cost (Bloomfield and Pegram, 2015). The advocacy is providing professional support to an individual unable to take their own care (Doherty et al. 2016). The adult nurses are to perform proper advocacy so that the vulnerable adults such as mentally challenged, disabled, poor and others are able to get proper care. This is because it is seen that the poor or physically or mentally challenged adults often face issues with taking decision regarding their care due to mental and physical condition (Conard et al. 2015). The NMC through its Code of Practices under the domain of “Prioritise people” have mentioned that nurses are to proper advocate for the vulnerable people so that the poor and discriminatory care can be challenged to ensure they get proper care for their improving their health (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015). The adult nurses in case fail to follow the code are seen to face ban or suspension of work by the NMC. This is because the lack of advocate for the vulnerable people leads them to get abused and harmed which deteriorates their health condition. For instance, Mr Robson who as a nurse in adult nursing field taking care of a dementia patient was charged by the NMC to make him banned from nursing practices after he was seen to abuse and drag a dementia patients across the hospital floor instead of protecting and advocating care for the individual. However, the nurse apologised and reports never to execute such act which led NMC to change their decision to provide him three-year cautionary notice allowing the nurse to be able to join work after the end of the notice period (www.mirror.co.uk, 2016).

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that NMC is the regulatory body of the nurses who have mentioned Code of Practices to be followed under four domains to ensure proper professional practice and behaviour of the nurses. The roles regarding training and controlling risk are mentioned for the nurses involved in adult care under the domain of “Preserve safety”. The NMC under the domain of “Practice effectively” and “Prioritise people” have mentioned guidelines to be followed by nurses involved in adult care to protect confidentiality, vulnerable people and execute advocacy. The violation of any of the code would lead nurses to face ban or get unregistered or get fined and others as seen in case of Mr Houston, Mr Robson and others.

References

• Bloomfield, J. and Pegram, A., 2015. Care, compassion and communication. Nursing Standard (2014+), 29(25), p.45.
• Braye, S., Orr, D. and Preston-Shoot, M., 2017. Adult safeguarding and self-neglect: emergent lessons from England. Self-Neglect in Older Adults: A Global, Evidence-Based Resource for Nurses and Other Healthcare Providers, p.175.
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• Duff, H. and Patterson, D., 2017. As a midwife ‘you must respect a woman's right to confidentiality’: A Northern Ireland perspective. British Journal of Midwifery, 25(1), pp.46-50.
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• Middle, B. and Miklancie, M., 2015. Strategies to improve nurse knowledge of delirium: a call to the adult-gerontology clinical nurse specialist. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 29(4), pp.218-229.
• Peterson, W.E. and DiCenso, A., 2016. A comparison of adolescent and adult mothers' satisfaction with their postpartum nursing care. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 34(4).pp.90-99.
• Petrova, E., Dewing, J. and Camilleri, M., 2016. Confidentiality in participatory research: Challenges from one study. Nursing Ethics, 23(4), pp.442-454.
• www.nmc.org.uk 2018, NMC: About Us, Available at: [Accessed on: 05 February 2019]
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