Nursing Standards: Ethical, Legal, and Social Media Policy

This report provides a comprehensive overview of nursing standards in clinical practice. It explores key elements such as ethical behavior, scope of practice and competency, communication, cultural diversity, justice, legal issues, advocacy, accountability, and responsibilities in relation to social media policy. The report references guidelines from the International Council for Nursing, Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, and Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation to illustrate the importance of these standards in ensuring patient safety and wellbeing. It emphasizes the need for effective communication, cultural sensitivity, adherence to legal and ethical boundaries, and responsible use of social media. The report concludes by highlighting the multidisciplinary nature of nursing practice and the importance of upholding these standards to promote effective clinical care and patient advocacy.

Running head: NURSING STANDARDS
Nursing Standards
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Introduction:
Clinical practice is defined as the technique of observing, analysing and planning service
care in the healthcare facility. It is the compilation of guidelines and standards that needs to be
followed by healthcare professionals and nurses in order to ensure patient safety. There are a
number of factors included in the standard procedure of safe clinical practice: quality of
assessment, diagnosis, identification of the outcome, planning, implementation, evaluation,
ethical standards, education, evidence based practice, effective communication and resource
utilization (Claudon et al., 2013). The guidelines of good clinical practice are important to assess
the patient’s condition and study the diagnostic procedure to commence a care plan and nursing
intervention. Following these clinical guidelines makes it easier for healthcare professionals and
nurses and provides better patient safety and wellbeing (Barr et al., 2013). Medical and clinical
errors can be avoided if a set of guidelines for clinical practice is followed. The aim of this report
is to correlate the effect if certain factors like; Ethical behaviour, Scope of Practice and
Competency, Communication, Culture and Diversity, Justice, Legal issues, Advocacy,
Accountability and Responsibilities in relation to the Social Media Policy in clinical practice.
Discussion:
Ethical behaviour
According to the guidelines of ethical standards provided by the International Council for
Nursing, 2012, Element of Code 1 states that Nurses are required to provide healthcare to
patients irrespective of their values, customs, religious beliefs and racial ethnicity and make sure
that proper care is provided (The ICN code of ethics for nurses, 2012). Element of Code 2 states

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that, the clinical practice of nurses should originate from trust, compassion and responsibility of
the profession to maintain the competence of healthcare services. Maintenance of personal
conduct is also another important aspect of clinical practice and patient privacy should not be
violated in order to establish trust (The ICN code of ethics for nurses, 2012). The Nursing and
Midwifery Board of Australia, Value statements 1, 2 and 3 states that “Nurses value quality
nursing care for all people”, “Nurses value respect and kindness for self and others” and “Nurses
value the diversity of people” (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia - Professional
standards", 2018).
Scope of Practice and Competency:
Scope of practice is defined as the technique by which nursing staff utilize their formal
education to perform competently with respect to the guidelines of the government . The tangible
scope of practice is inclined with the clinical practice performed by the nursing staff, the care
service of patient (Corazzini et al., 2013). The nursing skill and competence is affected by the
confidence of clinical practice. The nursing staff must follow seven standards which will ensure
safe and effective form of clinical practice (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Registered nurse standards for practice, 2017). Standard 6 of the Standards of Practice guidelines
on the NMBA states that Nurses should “Provide safe, appropriate and responsive quality
nursing practice”. The nursing staff is expected to adhere to the professional practice scope,
achieve the clinical goals, monitor timely supervision in order to ensure Standard 6 clause is
maintain in clinical nursing practice, a nursing staff is expected to understand the clinical
condition, administer safe trails, achieve the goals set for the patient outcome and must be
attentive towards the needs of patients. The nursing staff must adhere to the boundary of their

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practice scope, and represent the aspects of safe practice to other nurses in order to maintain the
conduct of good clinical practice.
Communication:
Good clinical practice always requires effective communication between the patient and
nurse also with other nursing staff as well so as to ensure the flow of information among the
workforce is maintained. According to the National Board National competency standards for
the nursing staff are organized into domains (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Professional standards, 2018). The Domain 9 of the Professional standards “Collaborative and
therapeutic practice” states that a nurse is required to make use of technology to ensure effective
communication. A written as well as spoken communication skill is necessary to build trust with
the patient. In cases if there is language barrier, a proper interpreter should be used to mediate
with the patient and their family. The nursing staff is expected to show respect to other
healthcare givers and acknowledge their decision making process with effective communication
(McCarthy et al., 2013).
Culture and Diversity:
The Australian population has a prosperous combination of diversity with respect to
culture and language and according to the Standards of Practice provided by the NMBA for
nursing; a nursing staff must follow the guidelines of cultural and ethnic sensitivity. The nursing
staff is required to understand the importance of historical and cultural differences that is
interconnected to the health and wellness of the people. Good clinical practice reflects this kind
of sensitivity and understanding of Australian culture and the impact of colonization in the minds
of the native Australians, like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and to provide
care to them accordingly without any discrimination.

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Justice:
According to the Coe of ethics Of Nursing provided by NMBA, Value statement 1 states
that: “Nurses value quality nursing care for all people”, meaning that the nursing staffs has to
advocate for the facilitation of various policies and legislations which promotes the wellbeing
and social justice for the underprivileged and making sure that they get equal share of
community resources (Code of Ethics for Nurses, 2012). The Value Statement 2 states that,
“Nurses value respect and kindness for self and others”. According to this statement, the nursing
staff must fulfil their civic responsibilities as members of the healthcare provider community and
participate in the affairs of the community services that facilitate the good clinical practice for
wellbeing of the population. The Value Statement 3 states that, “Nurses value the diversity of
people”; reduction of the consequences of imbalance in the power and detrimental perspectives
of the society is a conduct of good clinical practice to ensure social justice is maintained (Code
of Ethics for Nurses, 2012). Nursing healthcare and clinical practice should be focused on the
provision of humanity and delivery of care service (The ICN code of ethics for nurses, 2012).
Legal issues:
According to the Code of professional conduct for nurses, Code of ethics for nurses, the
Code of conduct for nurses provided by the government and Australia and New Zealand, the
nursing staff must adhere to the rules in terms of legal issues which they might have to face
while conducting clinical practice. The nursing staff must stay away from illegal forms of
clinical practice, like administering illicit drugs, should not cross professional boundaries with
patients and become over involved (A nurse's guide to professional boundaries, 2010). The
nursing staff is expected to follow the legislative rules in compliance with legislative rules that

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affect clinical practice and health care of nursing (National competency standards for the
registered nurse, 2010):
• Identify the legislative rules that govern clinical practice
• Describe clinical practice with respect to general law
• Describe and adhere to legal necessities for medications
• Identify legislative significance of clinical intervention
• Demonstrate action of awareness of legislative significance of clinical practice
• Identify and explain the effect of legal rules to individuals/groups
• Identify and explain the effect of legal action in healthcare, and identify unethical clinical
practice as it relates to breach of confidence and privacy.
Advocacy:
According to the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation, the nursing staffs is
required to promote the perception for the role of nursing in clinical practice and it is essential
that all nursing staff advocate for the role of healthcare givers in clinical practice. The nurse is
required to facilitate advocacy for the patient and their requirements (Mason, Leavitt & Chaffee,
2013). Reflection on the quality and efficacy of clinical practice is necessary to ensure that care
is congregating the needs of individual patients as well as their families. Standard 4, of the
guidelines states that the nursing staff should “Advocates for the role of nursing in general
practice” and The Standard 9 states that, the nursing staff must “Empowers and advocates for
consumers” (Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation, 2014).

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Accountability:
The nursing staff must be accountable for the responsibilities they uphold to promote
good clinical practice and ensure the workforce of the healthcare institute is maintained.
According to the NMBA Code of Ethics, Value statement 1, the nursing staff must have value
for superior nursing care that involves the nursing staff to accept the accountability for the
valuable of clinical service they provide and help raising the quality of standards of clinical
practice, and take responsibility when they judge, on logical foundation, the standard of nursing
service to be improper (Codes of professional conduct & ethics for nurses & midwives in
Australia, 2008). Again, according to the Registered Nurses, Standards of practice, Standard 3:
the nursing staff should accept the accountability for the decision they make, act and behave and
be responsible for their clinical service as well as others to ensure effective care service (Nursing
and Midwifery Board of Australia - Professional standards, 2018). Also the ICN Code Of Ethics,
Provision 2. “Nurses and practice”, states that the nursing staff have to carry out the
responsibility and accountability of their clinical practice and maintain clinical competence at the
same time (The ICN code of ethics for nurses, 2012).
Responsibilities in relation to the Social Media Policy:
The nursing staff are expected to adhere to certain professional boundaries when it comes
to Social Media, According to the Code of conduct , the nursing staff are required to explain
whether or not they are interacting with patients online. The nursing staff must also adhere to the
conducts in profession to respect the confidence and privacy of a patient and their information
when they are using social media. For example, Nursing staff are not allowed to post
unauthorized pictures of or with patients in Facebook or other social media websites. The

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nursing staffs also have obligatory responsibilities in terms of advertising patient information.
The Section 133 of the National Law limits the act of advertising all contents in the internet
including social media. Using testimonials in advertisement id forbidden for nursing staffs
(National Board policy for registered health practitioners SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY, 2014).
Conclusion:
The above discussion makes it clear that the nursing practice in terms of clinical care is
an multi disciplinary responsibility and every aspect of the care plan requires responsibility,
accountability, ethical as well as cultural to ensure that the clinical practice is effective. The
nursing staffs are expected to adhere to their social, cultural and ethical boundaries and exert
competence in their clinical practice and fulfil their responsibility as an advocate of healthcare
system to promote wellness.

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