NMBA Code Of Professional Conduct Analysis

According to the Royal College of Nursing, nursing is defined as “the use of clinical judgement in the provision of care to enable people to improve, maintain, or recover health, to cope with health problems, and to achieve the best possible quality of life, whatever their disease or disability, until death” (Clark, 2014). The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) is responsible for upholding the practice of nursing by protecting the public from unreliable and untrained healthcare professionals. Thus, the NMBA, and other various nursing organisations, has developed publications that work together to set the standard for professional and safe practice of nurses within the clinical workplace. The Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses

It is expected by the general public, and nursing institutions, that nurses, and other healthcare professionals, deliver patient-centred care that is up to the utmost standard. To encourage professional conduct within the healthcare setting, nurses are required to follow NMBA’s Code of Professional Conduct. This code outlines the “legal requirements, professional behaviour and conduct expectations of nurses in all practice settings” (NMBA, 2018). It is important that all nurses comply with this Code at all times, as the profession stretches across a broad range of settings and clients, not only restricted to patients in need of care, with the overall aim to deliver a healthcare service that is effective, efficient and utilises the nurse’s clinical and professional skills within the workplace. Also, the nurse’s professional conduct sets the foundation for the level of care a patient receives from the nurse. Gámez (2009) states that the level of satisfaction a patient receives during their treatment is determined by level of care provided by the nurse. In order to achieve this, the professional code of conduct guides nurses to establish and maintain a safe, caring and compassionate in the nurse and patient relationship. Furthermore, the importance of a code of conduct is highlighted in the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal, where it states that although the code is used to encourage professional behaviour, they also set the standard of care the public can expect to receive from nurses in Australia. (Bryce, Foley, & Reeves, 2018). If a nurse is found to have breached a Code of Conduct, they must be able to explain and justify their decisions and actions conducted, and repeated offences would be classified as professional misconduct and be prohibited from the nursing profession as a whole.