Code of Conduct for Nurses and Midwives in Australia

RUNNING HEAD: NURSING
NURSING
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

1NURSING
The nursing and midwifery board of Australia encompasses the code of conducts for
the nurses and the midwives so that they practice adhering to the guidelines while caring for
the patients. The code of conducts put forward by the nursing and midwifery board of
Australia consolidates legal compliance, cultural practice, building respectable relationships
with the patients while incorporating of proper behavioural professionalism while caring for
the patients. The policies use supervising and teaching tool to empower the midwifery and
nursing workforce within the organizations (Scanlon et al., 2016). The patient centred care is
emphasized in the code of conducts. Culturally safe practice and purposeful practice is
stressed throughout the policies put forward by the nursing and midwifery board of Australia
(Fisher, 2017). It is very important that the midwives and nurses adhere to the guidelines put
forward by the Australian board of nursing and midwifery in order to contribute to proper
patient centred care and patient’s service satisfaction (Lowe & Plummer, 2019). Effective
communication is very vital to the nursing and midwifery practice (Lyons & Bliss, 2018).
Section A:
In this case study, Mary was found not meeting the NMBA standards while applying
the person-centred and evidence-based care during delivery of a safe quality service. As a
nurse, she should have been more careful while caring for the residents placed under her
supervision. Keeping the patient’s environment sustainable and hygienic is a very critical
aspect of patient care and being by the patient’s side is very important, given the emergencies
that can arise at any point of time. Mary, in the case study, has been mentioned to be not
cleaning the blankets of the residents and leaving the urine bottles as it is, which denotes
clear breach of professional behaviour. The NMBA standards focus on patient centred care,
culturally competent practice and fostering of respectful relationships (Endacott et al., 2018).
The standards determine acting with professionalism while with the patients. The principles
of totality, integrity, honesty, compassion and respect (Richardson & Whatmore, 2015)

2NURSING
should be followed. But in the case study, Mary has been unprofessional with her patients as
she has been spending more time away from them, while talking to her nursing colleagues at
the work station.
The evidence in the case study has not led us to believe that Mary has formed any
therapeutic, person-centred relationships with her clients. A person centred care (Reynolds,
2017), as supported by the standards of NMBA (Kreitzer, 2015) has to be provided in an
evidence based practice environment by developing an effective and respectful partnership
with the person and the nursing practice, according to the NMBA code of conduct must
promote shared decision making with the patients for which communication and rapport
building with the patients (Ossenberg, Dalton & Henderson, 2016) is important. In the case
study there is no evidence for any such following of patient care policies as put forward by
the NMBA policies. There is clear lack of care and communication with the patient. Spending
time away from the patients, and conversing most of the times at the nurse stations would not
foster effective communication with any patients who are put into her care. Lack of
communication can become a huge barrier in fostering of therapeutic relationships with the
patients and keeping the patient out of sight, which has been reported in this case study, can
lead to various unfortunate, emergency situations in which the patient can be left
unsupervised. As a nurse, she has not embodied integrity, neither that she has been around
her patients to listen to their problems and concerns. This is another breach of the NMBA
standard. Under-supervision of the patients poses a great threat to their health conditions and
provides more opportunity to the presentation of adverse events in the health care scenario.
Listening to the person and listening to the distress of the patient has not been done which is a
clear concern. Mary should be more aware as a registered nurse and take control of the
situation.