Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses

‘Professional Standards’ define the required practice and behaviour of Registered Nurses and include the Registered Nurse:

• Code of Conduct;
• Code of Ethics;
• Guide to Professional Boundaries; and
• Standards for Practice/Competency Standards.

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.

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 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 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.

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. 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.

Guide to Professional Boundaries

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.

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.

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