Discussion of Important Articles on Nursing Practice in Australia

This article provides an overview of important documents that guide nursing practice in Australia, including professional boundaries, registered nurse standards, code of conduct, ICN codes of ethics, and social media policy. It discusses key factors in each document, such as maintaining professional boundaries, providing person-centered care, and developing ethical considerations. The article emphasizes the importance of these documents in guiding nursing practice and preventing ethical and legal dilemmas.

Running head: DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT ARTICLES
DISCUSSION OF IMPORTANT ARTICLES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Introduction:
A number of frameworks, guidelines, policies and codes guide the nursing occupation in
the nation of Australia. They guide nurses in ways that make them expert in the care they provide
to service users. The assignment will mainly provide brief overview of the documents and two
important factors o each of the documents/
A nurse’s guide to professional boundaries:
Researchers are of the opinion that therapeutic relationship is indeed an important aspect
that every healthcare professionals need to provide significance to provide high quality care of
the patients. For achieving this target, every healthcare professionals need to know the
professional boundaries that are delicate limit that should be adhered to by every nurse
(Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2018). This would help the individuals to protect the
community by helping to prevent distress, harm, confusion and abuses. One of the most
important factors that the author of the document has put forward is the correct use of power.
The document has clearly stated that the nursing professionals in the healthcare centers are
always at a higher level of power distribution than that of the patients who are seeking service.
Expert healthcare professionals would always use their power effectively in ways that help in
providing best quality care for the patient without resulting in abuse and breaches in human
rights (Hapel et al., 2015). The paper had correctly focused on three important domains where
the middle domain shows the zone of helpfulness called the therapeutic relationship. Another
important domain that lies to the right side of the domain is called the boundary violations
domain or the over involvement domain where nurses get involved in sexual assaults or
inappropriate relationships that are against the professional rules and expectations of the

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philosophies of nursing professions. Under involvement domain comprises of the nursing
professionals distancing or showing disinterest, coldness and neglect by which effective care can
never be given. Therefore, the nursing professionals should utilize their power in the correct
manner so that they neither exploit the patients nor fail to provide the best care but maintain a
power balance to engage effectively in therapeutic relationship. Another important factor that is
mentioned here and that the nursing professionals should consider is maintenance of
confidentiality. Nurses should maintain the information of the patient in way by which they are
safe with the professionals and do not is leaked easily. Moreover, the professionals should
develop the value of not using the information or dissolving the information that would help
them in gaining profit (Wolf et al., 2015). They should maintain confidentiality and only reveal
information when any aspect of therapeutic relation development needs to be achieved.
Registered nurse standards for practice:
Registered nurses in the nation is expected to provide a person centered care as well as
evidence based interventions that would help the patient to overcome his disorders and develop
high quality care. Such nurses are expected to develop a care that should incorporate
preventative, curative, supportive, restorative as well as formative and palliative elements
("Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Registered nurse standards for practice", 2017).
However, in order to provide this care, nurses need to follow certain guidelines so that they can
provide a comprehensive care in ways by which high quality care is provided covering all the
important aspects of care. Out of the seven important guidelines that are put forward by the
authors to help the nursing professionals to provide quality care one of the most important
factors is successful analysis and critical thinking of the nursing practice of the patients to
provide the best practice. Researchers are of the opinion when healthcare professionals take the

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help of most recent evidences to develop their knowledge and skills, the interventions developed
by them being the best outcomes. Such interventions are not only new but they ensure higher
levels of success in providing best quality care (Zuriguel et al., 2015). When nurses think
critically, they become aware of the cultural differences that are present between them and their
patients and hence the care provided by them is culturally sensitive. Another important factor
that would help the registered nurses to provide satisfactory services to the patients is their
development of therapeutic as well as professional relationships. Effective communication is
indeed one of the most important attribute of development of therapeutic relationship that helps
developing bond and trust among the patients and the nurse. Patients trust the nurses and adhere
with the interventions proposed by them (Wyder et al., 2015). The authors have also identified
the importance of development of a culture of safety and learning where nurses engaged with
other team members to participate in shared decision making, sharing knowledge and
information and thereby providing person centered care by making the patient the center of the
decision making procedures (Carter et al., 2016). Therefore, registered nurses should also
provide equal importance in development of therapeutic and professional relationships with the
patients and other team members to ensure best care.
Code of conduct for nurses:
Seven important domains have been discussed in details by the author of the document.
Each of the domains are in turn subdivided into a number of aspect that guide nurses with the
ways that would help them to learn the best care tactics. Legal compliance, person centered
practice, cultural practice as well as respectful relationships, professional behaviors, teaching
attributes, research in health as well as health and well-being are the main domains that are
discussed in details (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2018). One of the factor that id discussed in

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the document is informed consent. By this term, it actually means that the nursing professionals
need to take permission from the patients before initiating their treatment and while undertaking
different interventions. This action can be classified under the ethical guidelines of autonomy
and dignity. Maintaining autonomy and dignity of the patient is one of the ethical guidelines
every nursing professional has to follow and infirmed consent helps professionals to adhere to
the mentioned ethical value. When nursing professionals ask for informed consents, service users
feel respected and cared for (Kourkouta et al., 2014). They feel that their permissions are
important which prevent them from feeling low on self-esteem. Moreover, patients feel helpless
and powerless when they go through periods of illness and this approach makes them feel
empowered for taking decisions. Moreover, it is also seen that when healthcare professionals
discuss the interventions that they would be taken and the ask for informed consent, patients feel
relaxed as they understand what is going to happen with them. If patients are not discussed about
the intervention before taking consent, they may feel anxious and fearful about the fate of the
intervention. This might have negative consequences on their health outcomes. Therefore,
informed consent is considered an important code of conduct for the healthcare professionals.
Another important code of conduct that nursing professionals should also practice is providing
culturally competent care. Australia is a nation with beautiful amalgamation of diverse cultural
entities (Beattie et al., 2018). Therefore, being a health care professional here requires
individuals to provide a care that is not only culturally competent but also culturally sensitive.
Therefore, it becomes important for every professional to develop their knowledge on the
traditions, preferences and inhibitions of every culture of people who come for treatment.
Culturally insensitive practices not only affect the dignity and autonomy of the person but also
make the patient to go through different emotional and mental turmoil. This affects the health

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outcome of the individuals making them depressed and disrespected (Nasrabaddi et al., 2017).
Therefore, it is expected of the healthcare professionals to overcome their cultural biasness
through effective reflection and realization and thereby go through important resources to
develop their cultural awareness and provide culturally competent care enhancing patient
satisfaction.
ICN Codes of ethics;
International council of nurses has published this document that mainly put importance of
the four important responsibilities that every nursing professionals should incorporate in their
practice. These are the promotion of health, prevention of illness, restoration of health and
alleviation of suffering of people (Icn.ch, 2012). This document has made four important
categories that are nurses with profession, nurses with patients, nurses with practice and nurses
with coworkers. One of the factors discussed here that hold importance in the healthcare services
provided by the nursing professionals is continuing to develop education and knowledge on
ethical considerations. Researchers have defined the word ethics as moral principles that mainly
help the individual to govern his own behavior as well as conducting of an activity. Ethics or
moral philosophy which can be described as the branch of philosophy that involves
systematizing, defending as well as recommending concepts regarding wring or right conduct.
There are many important ethical theories that guide nurses in taking proper decisions about the
care plan that they adopt or the interventions that they would take when any conflicts with
patients arise. These involve autonomy, dignity, privacy, justice, beneficence and autonomy.
However, in different spheres of nursing professions arise where nurses suffer from ethical
dilemma and cannot understand which ethical guideline they need to follow to provide best care
to patients. These are very critical situations where nurses suffer from moral dilemmas where

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they need to make a choice between two options neither of which helps in resolving the situation
in an ethically acceptable fashion (Kangasniemi et al., 2015). Therefore, this might have a
negative impact on the patient who may not only suffer from negative health outcomes but may
also develop emotional and mental turmoil affecting their quality life. Therefore, these
documents instruct the nurses to engage continuously in professional development by educating
themselves on different ethical situation from training, evidence based practices, narration of
experiences of other colleagues and many others. Management of safety in workplace is also
important. This would help in maintaining safety not only for patients but also for other
professionals working in the ward (Nasrabaddi et al., 2017).
Social media policy:
This policy usually helps the healthcare professionals by guiding them through the
different legal rights that they need to be follow to provide the best care to patients. This policy
mainly focuses on social media that has become the best medium for reaching out to service
users and to different people in every corners of the nation this policy states the different
boundaries that providers need to follow in order to maintain dignity and autonomy of the
patient. One of the most important factors that is necessary to be discussed is the inappropriate
use of social media in advertising different aspects of healthcare. Section 133 of the National
law has imposes limits on the different ways by which health services provided by the healthcare
providers can be advertised (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2012). Therefore, this document is
indeed very important for the professionals so that they do not put forward any advertisement
that results them in legal obligations. It has been found that different healthcare organizations put
forward advertisements that are not real or are unnecessarily exaggerated like those who use
testimonials and many others. These are against laws and care should be taken so that

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professionals do not face any legal issues. Confidentiality is another important aspect that
should be also cared by professionals (Dehghani et al. 2015). There are many professionals who
are seen to provide information of patients, the cases they handle, the information shared by
patients on any important issues and others on the social media. This is against the legal
principles of maintaining confidentiality of patients under any circumstances (Aliyu et al., 2015).
This exposes the professionals to legal obligations that may harm their behavior. Hence, this
social policy is helpful for them.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it becomes quite clear, that the documents are indeed some of
the best resources for healthcare professionals. This helps to guide them through a number of
different principles, guidelines and codes that develops the quality of care for the professionals
and prevent them from entering in any ethical and legal dilemma.

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References:
Aliyu, D., Adeleke, I. T., Omoniyi, S. O., Samaila, B. A., Adamu, A., & Abubakar, A. Y. (2015).
Knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing ethics and law among nurses at Federal
Medical Centre, Bida. American Journal of Health Research, 3(1-1), 32-37.
Beattie, E., O’Reilly, M., Fetherstonhaugh, D., McMaster, M., Moyle, W., & Fielding, E. (2018).
Supporting autonomy of nursing home residents with dementia in the informed consent
process. Dementia, 1471301218761240.
Carter, A. G., Creedy, D. K., & Sidebotham, M. (2016). Efficacy of teaching methods used to
develop critical thinking in nursing and midwifery undergraduate students: a systematic
review of the literature. Nurse education today, 40, 209-218.
Dehghani, A., Mosalanejad, L., & Dehghan-Nayeri, N. (2015). Factors affecting professional
ethics in nursing practice in Iran: a qualitative study. BMC medical ethics, 16(1), 61.
Happell, B., Bennetts, W., Harris, S., Platania‐Phung, C., Tohotoa, J., Byrne, L., & Wynaden, D.
(2015). Lived experience in teaching mental health nursing: Issues of fear and
power. International journal of mental health nursing, 24(1), 19-27.
Icn.ch. (2012). Code of Ethics for Nurses. [online] Available at:
http://www.icn.ch/who-we-are/code-of-ethics-for-nurses/ [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].

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Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P., & Korhonen, A. (2015). Professional ethics in nursing: an
integrative review. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(8), 1744-1757.
Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. V. (2014). Communication in nursing practice. Materia
socio-medica, 26(1), 65.
Nasrabadi, A. N., & Shali, M. (2017). Informed Consent: A Complex Process in Iran's Nursing
Practice. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration, 23(3), 223-228.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Registered nurse standards for practice.
(2017). Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. Retrieved 17 April 2018, from
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-
standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2012). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Social
media policy. [online] Available at: http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-
Guidelines-Statements/Policies/Social-media-policy.aspx [Accessed 17 Apr. 2018].
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. (2018). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - New codes
of conduct take effect for nurses and midwives. [online] Available at:
http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/News/2018-03-01-new-codes.aspx [Accessed
17 Apr. 2018].
Wolf, L. E., Patel, M. J., Tarver, B. A. W., Austin, J. L., Dame, L. A., & Beskow, L. M. (2015).
Certificates of confidentiality: protecting human subject research data in law and
practice. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 43(3), 594-609.

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Wyder, M., Bland, R., Blythe, A., Matarasso, B., & Crompton, D. (2015). Therapeutic
relationships and involuntary treatment orders: Service users' interactions with health‐
care professionals on the ward. International journal of mental health nursing, 24(2),
181-189.
Zuriguel Pérez, E., Lluch Canut, M. T., Falcó Pegueroles, A., Puig Llobet, M., Moreno Arroyo,
C., & Roldán Merino, J. (2015). Critical thinking in nursing: scoping review of the
literature. International journal of nursing practice, 21(6), 820-830.