Evaluating Professional Standards: A Nursing Case Study in Australia

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of nursing professional standards in Australia, focusing on the Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics, and Guide to Professional Boundaries as defined by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). It examines a case study where a nurse, Frankie, breaches several of these standards, particularly concerning patient confidentiality and the appropriate use of social media. The essay highlights the importance of maintaining professional boundaries, respecting patient dignity, and adhering to ethical guidelines in nursing practice. It further explores the legal issues and potential implications of misusing social media in healthcare, emphasizing the need for nurses to understand and uphold their professional responsibilities to protect patients and maintain the integrity of the nursing profession. The document is contributed by a student and available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

Running Head: NURSING PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS 1
Nursing Professional Standards in Australia
Name:
Institution:

Nursing Professional Standards in Australia 2
Introduction
It is essential that nurses maintain professionalism in their line of duty because it creates
the sense of accountability when the nurse is attending to the patient. Moreover, professionalism
can get achieved from knowledge, ethics in nursing practices and maintain a professional
presence around the hospital and patients. Therefore, it is crucial that the nurse keeps a code of
ethics and professional standards that demonstrate good behavior which enhances a professional
and positive for the nurse and the hospital facility (Ghadirian, 2014). Furthermore, this article
creates a relation between the case study and the relevant professional standards that the nurse
should maintain. From the case study, we can identify that Frankie breaches some of the
essential codes of conduct and professional standards of the nursing practice that are harmful to
the patient and the hospital's reputation. It is clear that she breaches the boundaries and rules set
by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). It is unfortunate that she is
unapologetic and continues to say that what she does in social media is not anyone's business and
that there is no need to report about her conduct to anyone.
Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses
The purpose of the code of conduct for nurses in Australia is to ensure that members who
are in the nursing field maintain required standards when interacting with patients and other
people in the hospital facility. Moreover, the Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in
Australia helps in informing the community about the standards of conduct that nurses are
required to uphold in Australia. According to NWBA (2008), nurses are supposed to practice
safe and competent manners that a bind with the standards of the profession in healthcare
delivery. Furthermore, the nurses are expected to have dignity, be respectful and respect the
beliefs of the patient receiving treatment and care and views of other colleagues. Frankie

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recognizes this code of conduct when she asks Jed if it is okay if she takes a picture of the knee
wound to monitor its progress which was respectful. However, she is disrespectful to her
colleague when she sends a snap of Jed’s chart to her friends without consulting him. The nurses
are also expected to provide honest and accurate information regarding the nursing care of a
patient and healthcare products (NMBA, 2018). Frankie breaks the conduct of offering truthful
information when she posts in her social media account that Jed's wound is the grossest thing she
had ever seen and further tags him which is unethical. Also, she did not consult the patient when
she posted the picture on social media and even when she made untruthful remarks about Jed's
wound. The statements resulted in some doctors visiting Jed to check on his progress which was
not necessary because Jed's condition had improved.
Code of Ethics
The code of ethics for nurses emphasizes the importance and obligations of nurses in
recognizing the needs of the patient and their family. Also, the code of ethics provides a guide to
nurses on their ethical and clinical decision-making skills by reflecting on their self-development
in their profession (agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann, 2014). The nurse is also expected to
uphold the confidentiality of personal information and should be careful about who they share
the patient's information. From the case study, Frankie breaks this code of ethics when she takes
the photo of Jed's knee wound where the patient next bed got seen and another patient's
paperwork is visible. It is clear that she breaks the rule of maintaining confidentiality and it is
very unethical of her to do this, and she is not apologetic of it. The nurse is also expected to
develop and maintain professional values and implement the acceptable standards of clinical
nursing practice. Frankie breaches this code of ethics when she thinks it is funny that the patient's
name is not correctly written and takes a snap of Jed's chart and sends it to her friends. It is

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unethical, and she fails to maintain the clinical standards of conduct and professionalism when
she sends Jed's table to her friends. Furthermore, she did not consult anyone before she sent the
snap of Jed's table to her friends.
Guide to Professional Boundaries
In the nursing profession, the nurse got entitled to a lot of personal information about a
patient which is entrusted to the nurse because it is confidential. Hence, the professional
boundaries help the nurse in creating limits between which her or his profession and the
vulnerability of the patient. Therefore, the therapeutic plans and goals for a patient should get
maintained as confidential, and it is the responsibility of the nurse to ensure that their
professional and personal boundaries get maintained. According to NMBA (2013), the nurse is
responsible for the care of his or her colleagues and helping them retain their lives confidential.
Hence, when the nurse crosses these boundaries, it means that they are unprofessional and
misusing the power in the relationship with the patient and other colleagues. From the case
study, Frankie is observed to breach many boundaries on which are required to be maintained by
the professional boundaries guide.
For instance, Frankie takes a snap of Jed’s chart and sends it to her friends because she
thinks it is funny that Jed's name was not correctly written. It is unprofessional because she fails
to maintain the professional boundaries that demand that she keeps the patients' details as
confidential. Moreover, Frankie acts unprofessionally when she befriends Jed on social media
and posts his confidential details regarding his knee wound. She acts unprofessionally because
she is supposed to maintain her dignity and the boundaries that relate to nurse-patient
relationship. Furthermore, the patient in the bed next to Jed got seen, and another patient's
paperwork is visible. It is unprofessional that she acts in this way and she is unapologetic.

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Frankie further acts unprofessionally when she messages Jed's wife updating her on the doctors'
updates and images of Jed's pathology results. In her defense, she says that she plays netball with
Jed's wife and that the wife was worried about how her husband's recovery process was. This
unprofessional and it breaches the NMBA guidelines regarding the nursing professional
boundaries that the nurse should maintain.
Legal Issues and Potential Implications of Using Social Media
According to Hao (2017), social media plays an essential role in the healthcare system in
a variety of ways, and this may include providing healthcare professionals with applications that
help them share health information. Moreover, social media helps healthcare practitioners the
avenue to debate on crucial health practice issues and promoting the primary health care
behaviors. Furthermore, nurses can participate in online forums and discuss a patient's problems
with other medical practitioners (Ventol, 2014). However, there is the disadvantage of using
social media especially when the medical practitioners decide to misuse their freedom on social
media to posting medical details to people it does not concern. For instance, when Frankie sends
a snap of Jed's chart to her friends is unprofessional, and she keeps misusing her freedom when
she sends the patient's details to people who are not certified, medical practitioners. Moreover,
after the patient agrees that she can take a picture of his wound so that Frankie and her colleague
may monitor the progress of his knee wound, she posts the image on social media and tags Jed.
Furthermore, she makes disrespectful remarks that it is the grossest thing she had ever seen and it
is evident that she is misusing her freedom on social media by posting details of Jed's knee
wound to people it does not concern. Also, Frankie sends updates and images of Jed's pathology
results to his wife via social media which is a clear breach of the guidelines regarding
professional nursing boundaries.

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Conclusion
This article clearly states the essence of the nurses maintaining their code of conduct and
ethics because most of the patient’s details are confidential. Furthermore, nurses have the
responsibility to ensure that their colleagues can keep their lives confidential and also help the
patient in planning and create confidential goals that enhance their recovery. It is also critical that
the nurses adhere to the guidelines that govern their profession and the boundaries involved.

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References
agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann, B. A. (2014). Analysis of consultation activities for the draft
code of professional conduct and ethics for registered nurses and registered midwives,
final report.
Ghadirian, F., Salsali, M., & Cheraghi, M. A. (2014). Nursing professionalism: An evolutionary
concept analysis. Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research, 19(1), 1.
Hao, J., & Gao, B. (2017). Advantages and Disadvantages for Nurses of Using Social
Media. of, 3, 2.
NMBA, (2013). A nurse’s Guide to Professional Boundaries. Retrieved from:
file:///C:/Users/My/Downloads/Nursing-and-Midwifery-Board---Codes-and-
Guidelines---Professional-boundaries-for
NMBA, (2018). Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia. Retrieved from:
file:///C:/Users/My/Downloads/6_New-Code-of-Professional-Conduct-for-Nurses-
August-2008-1-%20(1).PDF
Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social media and health care professionals: benefits, risks, and best
practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(7), 491.