NMBA UPDATE
23
Code of conduct for nurses domain three: act with professional integrity The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) has published the new Code of conduct for nurses (the code), which takes effect for all nurses in Australia on 1 March 2018. Nurses need to understand and apply the NMBA code to their practice, even if their employer also has a code of conduct. The new code is grouped into four domains of conduct: • practise legally • practise safely, effectively and collaboratively • act with professional integrity, and • promote health and wellbeing. The third domain in the new Code of conduct for nurses is “act with professional integrity” and is underpinned by three principles and value statements: • Professional behaviour: Nurses embody integrity, honesty, respect and compassion. • T eaching, supervising and assessing: Nurses commit to teaching, supervising and assessing
students and other nurses, in order to develop the nursing workforce across all contexts of practice. • Research in health: Nurses recognise the vital role of research to inform quality health care and policy development, conduct research ethically and support the decision-making of people who participate in research. The principle of “professional behaviour” gives guidance for nurses around a number of important areas, including: • professional boundaries, to ensure nurses and the person receiving care and their nominated partners, family and friends, engage safely and effectively in professional relationships, including where care involves personal contact and/or emotional intimacy • to ensure honesty and transparency when advertising, representing yourself professionally, and when conducting legal, insurance and other assessments
• how to manage conflicts of interest, including issues related to financial arrangements and gifts, to ensure transparency and trust. The “teaching, supervising and assessing” principle sets out the expectations for nurses in relation to creating opportunities for nurses and nursing students to learn, and also expectations around performing honest, objective and fair assessments of colleagues and students. The final principle of the “act with professional integrity” domain is “research in health.” This principle outlines the additional responsibilities of nurses involved in the design, organisation, undertaking or reporting of health research. The NMBA encourages nurses to get to know their new code before it takes effect next year. Please view the Code of conduct for nurses in full on the NMBA website.