The Nursing and Midwifery Council

Running head: NMC CODES IN NURSING
NMC CODES IN NURSING
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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NMC CODES IN NURSING
Introduction:
The Nursing and Midwifery Council is a professional body in the domain of nursing that
protects the public health by making sure that the nurses are providing evidence based care. It
also describes the importance of providing ethical and legally safe care to the patients that satisfy
them and maintain their human rights. It comprises of four categories, which are prioritizing
people, practicing effectively, preserving safety of patients and promoting professionalism and
trust. One of these categories of nursing standards identified by NMC is called “prioritize
people”. This category mainly talks about the responsibilities of the nurses in putting the
interests of the patients first. Nurses need to provide care to the patient in ways that would help
them to respect their diversity and background and accordingly they need to design care plans
that meets the needs of the patients in a culturally competent manner (Blais et al. 2015). Nurses
also need to make sure that the patients are treated with respect and that their rights are upheld
and any form of discriminatory attitudes and behaviors towards patients are challenged and
reported (Claramita et al. 2016). With the help of the Gibbs’s reflective model, I will mainly
reflect on three important events where I followed this category in a dedicated manner and
helped in providing patient care that satisfied the patient and helped in bringing positive
outcomes in the patients. Nursing education has embarked the concept of reflection as one of the
most valuable tools that help nurses in learning from the practices (Betancourt et al. 2016).
Reflection can be used by the professionals during practice placements as one of the most
important modes of learning that help in promoting personal as well as professional growth
(Bloomfield and Pregram 2015). It helps nursing professionals to identify both their strengths
and weakness and thereby work on such attributes to become a better professional for the future.
Studies are of the opinion that reflective practice is one of the best ways for ensuring lifelong

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NMC CODES IN NURSING
learning throughout their lives (Holm et al. 2017). The act of reflection can be considered as one
of the best processes for increasing the confidence and become a more proactive as well as
qualified professionals (Jeffreys 2015). Nursing professionals can use Gibbs reflective model for
effective reflection (Marrone 2016). This model helps nurses in effectively dissecting their
experiences into six important components. This occurs through discussion of the incident in
details, then jotting down feeling after the incident. This is then followed by effective evaluation
of the incident and analyzing the situation in the light of evidence-based information. This would
be then followed by a conclusion section and action plan where the nurse would undertake
initiatives to overcome the weakness and strengthen my positive attributes (Walczak et al. 2017).
In addition, the Benner’s model of the stages of clinical competence (1984) called “From Novice
to Expert” would be also applied in the discussion of the episode of care. This nursing theory
mainly proposes that expert nurses develop skills as well as understanding of the patient care
over time through proper educational background and a number of multitudes of experiences. It
contains five important stages called the novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, as
well as expert and I would also classify myself into the categories in respect to the skills and
principles developed by me over the episodes of care. This aim of the assignment is to reflect on
two care episodes from my nursing experiences and then they would be analyzed in the light of
the standard principles set by NMC in the category of “prioritize people”. The Gibbs reflective
cycle would be followed for reflecting on the incidents and Benner’s theory would be also used
for judging my competence level.

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NMC CODES IN NURSING
First episode:
During placement, I took care of an Islamic Asian women named Maryam Abdullah, who
was 65 years old and was suffering from multiple chronic disorders of diabetes, osteoarthritis,
and obesity. Her son and daughter-in-law admitted her to the ward after she had a fall in the
garden. After she was admitted to the ward, my facilitator approached me and advised me to be
extra careful with this case as the patient is Islamic in religion and that they have specific cultural
traditions and customs that I need to keep in mind while planning the care process. My mentor
was satisfied and she told me that I was able to deliver high quality culturally competent care to
the patient successfully. This aspect of care not only satisfied her but also helped her in feeling
empowered to take care of her own self.
After the care incident, I felt quite confident about my skill and my facilitator was also
impressed by my care services. I was happy as I felt I could contribute to the society and help an
individual to live better quality life. The patient was happy and stated that all her traditions had
been followed by me and this had impressed her. She was fearful of the care treatment as she
initially had believed that she would face discrimination. My care service pleased her and this
increased my confidence level and boosted my morale.
Evaluation of the incident showed me how I had successfully developed strong rapport
with the patient named Maryam. Maryam was of Islamic origin and had their own sets of cultural
preferences and traditions that they follow. It is the duty of the nurse to treat people as
individuals and dignity (Ring et al. 2016). NMC describes that they need to listen to people and
respond according to their preferences and concerns. Hence, it was important for me to first learn
about the preferences and concerns of Maryam and then design my care-planning successfully.