Australia Nursing Standards

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) which is also supported by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, (AHPRA) have created several guiding documents. The guiding documents: The Code of Ethics; The Code of Professional Conduct; The registered nurse standards of practice; The Nurses’ guide to professional boundaries and The Social Media Policy, were all created to direct and guide Registered Nurses and Nursing Students of Australia, throughout their practices and on clinical placements. In doing this, it set a certain type of standard that needs to be followed and used throughout everyday practices in the Nursing line of work. According to NMBA, these documents were all created with one “key role, which is to always
It is mentioned throughout the code of conduct document that they need to always practice in a safe and competent manner, practice in relation to the set standards, always respect the dignity, culture, ethnicity, values and beliefs of a patient and colleague and to constantly protect the trust within your relationship between patients and colleagues. If these standards were not created, there may be cases of not working in a safe and competent manner, which worst case scenario may lead to the harm of a patient. Most importantly, could potentially offend patients due to their particular culture and certain values or beliefs, also known as cultural diversity. (Cultural diversity, which was first recognised in the 1950’s by ‘Madeleine Leininger’ who created the Cultural Care Theory (WhyIWantToBeANurse, 201, “Nursing Theory”, para.6). It has been defined as the difference between people of different cultures, beliefs, values and customs). This could result in insulting or offending the patients’ feelings and resulting in them feeling as if they will require a replacement Nurse to attend to them. Another statement that is mentioned is to constantly handle personal and confidential information that is acquired in a professional manner, is to be private. In the case that this document was never created, a nurse may release confidential information or paperwork without patients approval, or even treat this information in an unprofessional manner leading to that nurse and hospital or company to be sued. Linking to this, the last is maintain and build on the trust between yourself and your patients cause the last thing youy want when your trying to do your job is to betray the trust of a patient in even the simplest way possible. Overall, it is important to have these particular standards of the Code of Professional Conduct within the nursing