Nursing Assignment - code of ethics for nurses

Nursing

Table of Contents
1. LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATION...........................................................................1
a) Purpose of code of ethics for nurses...................................................................................1
b) What role does the nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia play in regulating the nursing
profession?..............................................................................................................................1
c) Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia nursing provides practices guidelines, policy
framework, standards and fact sheets. ...................................................................................2
d) How can you prepare for children in the workplace..........................................................2
e) Requirement of continuous professional education for nurses in Australia.......................2
f) Discrimination, types and its implication...........................................................................3
g) Duty of care........................................................................................................................3
h) Equal employment opportunity..........................................................................................3
I) Human rights including access to healthcare and autonomy..............................................3
j) Informed consent.................................................................................................................4
k) What assurance must you have as an enrolled nurse?........................................................4
2. Issues relating to Life and Death.................................................................................................4
a What does power of attorney cover?...................................................................................4
b) What are living wills and advance directives?...................................................................5
c) What is guardianship?........................................................................................................6
3. Mandatory Reporting...................................................................................................................6
a) Reasonable grounds for mandatory reporting....................................................................6
4. Privacy and Confidentiality.......................................................................................................10
a) Legislative requirement under privacy and confidentiality..............................................11
b) Amendments to Privacy Act (1988)- the Privacy Amendment Act (2000) cover?.........12
5. Social Media Policy...................................................................................................................13
a) What are the implication of social media in the nursing department...............................13
6. Common Wealth and State/Territory Legislation......................................................................16
a. What commonwealth and state/territory legislation and legal provisions affect the
development of nursing programs and provision of services and procedures in Australia? 16
RERFERENCES............................................................................................................................19

1. LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
a) Purpose of code of ethics for nurses
Code of ethics refers to the ethical values and principals of any organisation which are
required to be followed by management while taking professional decisions (Daly, Speedy and
Jackson, 2017). In context to medical stream, it has been identified that there are numerous of
code of ethics for Nurses in Australia. Some of the Main among them are defined as below:
 Nurses provide value to diversity of human beings.
 They give preference to informed decision making.
 They value safe and secure environment in health care sector.
 They value promotion of well being with social, ecological sustainable, economical
culture in healthcare sector Nurses give respect to themselves and others
Purpose
Every code of ethics has its own purpose and values which are considered by individual
at the time of formulating them. With respect to the above specified code of ethic for Australian
nurses, its main purpose is to guide all nursing staff about ethical practices and decision making
in healthcare sector ( Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia, 2019). Along with this, its another
purpose indicates toward human rights, ethical values and practices which are expected by the
nurses to follow.
b) What role does the nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia play in regulating the nursing
profession?
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) is responsible for carrying out
functions in order to regulate health care system in state and territory ( Role of NMBA in
regulating. 2019). The role it plays are as follows:
 to maintain registration of practitioners and students of nursing and midwifery.
 Formulation and development of standards, codes and guidelines.
 Managing notifications, investigations and resolving complaints.
 Monitoring and assessing trained practitioners in Australia.
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c) Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia nursing provides practices guidelines, policy
framework, standards and fact sheets.
 Enrolled nurse competency standard for practice- Every nurse and practitioner is
required to comply with standards that have been developed by NMBA. These are to
ensure that they provide quality in work by using their skills.
 Professional boundaries- These are the vital consideration that must be abide by all the
staff engaged in health care services in order to maintain healthy relationship with his
patient ( Decision making framework, 2019). One should not exceed his professional
boundaries.
 Professional practice guidelines- These are the guidelines which must be followed
while conducting activities at workplace. There are certain ways to do nursing activities
as it involves taking care of the patients to make them better.
 Decision making framework(DMF) including the nursing flowchart- These are
provided for its staff to understand the expectations and requirements (Lubbe and Roets,
2014). Further, it provides a direction for to meet the objectives of health care service
centre in Australia.
 Re-entry to practice, registration guidelines and recency of practice fact sheet- If a
nurse wish to resume his or her work and re enter the practices, then he must qualify the
current practices for obtaining registration.
d) How can you prepare for children in the workplace
Jobs in present time of digitalisation along with the skills and capabilities required to do
them are transforming at an unprecedented rate. It has been analysed that schools alone cannot be
expected to foster the complex combinations of different studies related to technology,
engineering, science and maths. On the other hand, a range of skills like decision making,
problem solving, collaboration along with communication are needed for children to have for
their bright career in near future careers.
e) Requirement of continuous professional education for nurses in Australia
Improvement is required in every sector as it open up chances of growth for professionals
. In context to nursing staff, it can be said that it is required by nurses of Australia to attend
maximum session which could raise Continuous professional education of medical staff in
effective manner (Wilkinson and Matzo, 2015). It has been identified that continuous based
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professional education will improve quality of work of nurses. It include training sessions,
seminars and many other things.
f) Discrimination, types and its implication
Discrimination refers to the unfair and unequal treatment which is provided by one
person to another one. It is basically based on different categories like age, gender, race, sex,
income status etc. In context to healthcare sector, discrimination is mainly of two types that is
direct or indirect discrimination (Gallagher and et. al., 2015). Both of them are defined as below:
Direct: Direct discrimination can be seen if an medical practitioner treats patient
differently or in an unappropriated manner due to any reason such as age, disability, race,
religion etc.
Indirect: Indirect discrimination is basically done on the basis of major reason like some
is black or gay. It is an unlawful activity which is strictly avoided by Equality act 2010.
g) Duty of care
Duty of care is considered as the legal responsibility for ensuring that patient will get
better and safe treatment from medical staff. It can be said that duty of care is legal aspects of
nursing department which states that they how an medical practitioner should behave in any
uncertain situation especially when they are off duty (Cavaye and Watts, 2014). It also states that
medical practitioner should try to provide best possible treatment to patient in uncertain
situations.
h) Equal employment opportunity
It is the policy provided by universal health services which states that all employees
should get equivalent job opportunities, training, and benefits without discrimination. UHS also
provides economical accommodation facilities to its disabled employees in order to follow local,
federal and state law.
I) Human rights including access to healthcare and autonomy
Human rights are basically termed as the basic freedom rights of every which are entitled
to them. These rights includes political rights, liberty, freedom, equality, property etc. In context
to healthcare sector, it can be said that every human being has right to take appropriate medical
treatment from healthcare sector (Bismark and et. al., 2016). They owns right of getting safe,
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