The Role of Healthcare Professional

Introduction

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is a regulatory body that governs and regulates the professional practice of nursing in the UK. Its main role is to ensure that the public receives quality nursing and midwifery services. The NMC is governed by the NMC Council whose main role is to oversee the organization’s operations and develop the organization’s strategic direction (NMC, 2018). A key role played by the NMC is registration and revalidation of registered nurses. According to NMC (2018), all practicing nurses must be registered and after every three years, all the registered nurses must revalidate their registration. This is meant to ensure that all practicing nurses maintain and demonstrate professional standards during the practice.
NMC also participates in training and education of nursing practitioners. In doing so, it establishes the training standards for all nursing and midwifery training institutions in the UK and ensures that these institutions adhere to these training standards (NMC 2018). Nonetheless, a major tool used by the NMC to regulate nursing and midwifery practice is the NMC code of conduct (The Code). Ideally, the code defines the standards and professional that must be adhered to by all practicing nurses and midwives (NMC 2018). Some of the key standards established in The Code include safety standards of treatment, effective practice, and professionalism. Through NMC committees, NMC hears and resolves all the complaints and allegations made against any registered professionals. Upon receipt of the complaints, the committee makes a formal communication to the professionals requesting a prompt response over the issue (NMC 2018). Meanwhile, the committee can make various interim orders against the professional and this may include suspension. Attached in Appendix 1 is a graphical illustration of NMC and its roles.

The Importance of Teamwork within the Context of Nursing

Nurses do not work as individuals but serve patients within a multidisciplinary team. According to Allaredy et al (2007), these teams include nurses, specialists, and primary care physicians. Everyone within the team works towards a common goal of ensuring the patient’s safety and well-being through the provision of high-quality care. Research by Amos et al (2005) indicates that teamwork within the nursing context has a direct correlation with patient safety. For instance, a constant communication between nurses, physicians an specialist enables the creation and delivery of a personalized care to the patient (Thomas, 2011). Besides, a well-organized inter-professional communication and teamwork keeps all the team members informed of the patient’s care plan – for proposes of a careful monitoring of the patient’s progress. Regular meetings by multidisciplinary teams ensure the patient is thoroughly evaluated (Virani, 2012). Moreover, the daily interaction between nurses and their patients exposes the nurses to the finer details of the patient’s condition that the physician may not be aware of. Consequently, through teamwork, the nurses are able to communicate these details to the physicians and brainstorm over the issues to improve patient care (World Health Organization 2013).

Possible Implications for All Concerned If Adequate Supervision Is Not Available

Clinical supervision refers to an established system of accountability meant to develop, support and ensure the values of a team or a group of clinical supervision (Bond, 2011). According to Lynch et al (2009), the main purpose of supervision is to ensure a confidential and safe environment for clinical staff to discuss and reflect on their professional and personal experiences at work.

Ideally, supervisions are normally targeted at registered professionals such as doctors, social workers, and other health-related professionals. When there is an inadequate supervision, professionals are not able to manage the professional or personal challenges they encounter within the work environment (Jooste, 2009). In the absence of supervision, these professionals may develop poor emotional responses to occupational stress, leading to negative reactions that may have negative impacts on patient safety. Moreover, according to Lynch et al (2009), nurses’ work is influenced by their emotional stability because negative personal emotions interfere with decision-making and ability to solve clinical problems. This has a high impact on patient safety.

The Ethical and Moral Dilemmas Faced By the Professionals

Sometimes during practice, nurses or other practitioners face decision-making problems that may require moral-based solutions. According to Wyckoff et al (2009), these problems are called ethical or moral dilemmas. In the presented case study, an ethical dilemma emerges when MH failed to reassure her patient and the fact that she just looked on as the Student tended to the patient. In this scenario, the Student Nurse encountered an ethical dilemma of whether she should ask MH to perform her duty or go ahead to attend to the patient herself. Ultimately, Ruth decided to tend to the patient. Ideally, this depicts an adherence to the NMC code of performance and ethics which states that practitioners must act immediately if it is evident that a colleague or anyone else is putting the patient at risk (NMC, 2018). Here, MH was putting the agitated patient, together with her baby at risk by failing to respond to and assure the patient. Instead of waiting for MH to address the situation, the Student Nurse acted immediately to assist the agitated patient.
The student nurse also faced a moral dilemma when the agitated patient started to raise her voice at her. Instead of reacting to the patient’s agitation, she offered to take and feed the baby. This non-reaction depicted the Student Nurse’s adherence to the NMC ethical code which states that practitioners must not allow the patient’s complains to affect the care they provide (NMC, 2018). Similarly, the student also adhered to the NMC code of ethics which states that practitioners must immediately put matters right when the patient has suffered harm (NMC, 2018). Here, the patient was not getting the assurance she needed from MH. The Student Nurse then offered to feed the baby, thereby putting matters right.
Admonishing the Student Nurse for ‘adding more work’ was an unethical practice, and against the NMC codes of conduct. According to NMC (2018), while working in teams, practitioners must cooperate and respect the expertise, skills, and contributions of their colleagues. Here, the student made a contribution towards making things right, yet all that Midwife Ruth could do is to admonish her. Pushing the baby cot was also an unethical act. According to NMC (2018), practitioners must treat everyone with dignity and respect. They must also treat everyone with kindness and considerately. Yet, perhaps out of annoyance, Midwife Ruth pushed the baby cot against the wall. This was a violation of the baby’s dignity, and an inconsiderate behaviour. Ruth could have handled the baby cot gently and placed it somewhere close for easy monitoring.
Lastly, Midwife Ruth acted unethically by rudely replying the agitated patient that: “go to sleep and leave the care to us!” this was against the ethical code which requires practitioners to treat all individuals considerately and with care (NMC 2018). Instead, Ruth could have politely advised the patient not to worry because the child was under their care.

Qualified Nurses working in hospitals/specialist departments are more important than Healthcare Assistants or Domiciliary qualified Nurses and Healthcare Assistants.

This statement is untrue because all healthcare practitioners and other health-related professionals work together within a multidisciplinary framework to promote the health and well-being of patients. First, a qualified nurse is one with all the academic and professional qualifications to handle patients and deliver various clinical care services (Wyckoff et al, 2009). Typically, all UK nurses registered with the NMC are considered qualified. According to Jansen & Zwygart-stafer (2006), a qualified nurse provides hands-on care to patients by monitoring the patient’s conditions, administering medication, maintaining patient records and making important communications regarding the patient to the rest of the team (Ward, 2013). On the other hand, a healthcare assistant work with and support registered nurses in delivering care to patients. Moreover, according to Wyckoff et al (2009), healthcare assistants are part of the nursing team during surgical procedures, participate in residential home care, and look after people with long-term conditions. They make hospital beds, help patients to move around, serve meals, sterilize surgical equipment, and process lab samples among other duties. Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that qualified nurses are more important than healthcare assistance because each category of professionals complement each other in delivering care.

Care Assistants in Residential Homes Are Undervalued and Underpaid

Care assistants in residential homes perform various roles including: getting to understand clients’ interest and special needs, helping with personal care, food preparation, administering medication and feeding the clients (Bunting, 2016). Bunting (2016) observes that while care assistants’ jobs require high skills, a majority of care assistants in the UK are underpaid. In fact, the current minimum pay for a social worker is £7.83 per hour, a rate considered by Social Care (2018) as extremely low compared to the work they do. This has led to a series of campaigns led by various organizations such as Citizens UK to develop and promote legislation for minimum wage standards for people working within the social care fraternity; including care assistants in residential homes. Thus, based on the arguments of Bunting (2016), care assistants in residential homes are undervalued and underpaid.

Professional Nursing care is crucial for well-being; more than family carers or voluntary care workers

The proposition that professional nursing care is more crucial for well-being than voluntary care or family care is untrue. This is because while professional nursing care ensures that the patient’s condition is monitored, administer medications and keep health records, family caregivers play a vital role in assisting patients to follow drug prescriptions, assist them in making important decisions e.g. informed consent (especially those with terminal illness) and takes general care of the patients while at home Ward (2013). These roles are equally important to the health and well-being of the patient. On the other hand, according to Wyckoff et al (2009), voluntary care workers (are attached to various organizations such as foundations, charities, and advocacy groups) also make an important contribution to patient health and well-being by supporting care services through donations, training, information and advice. Therefore, both voluntary care workers and family carers are of equal importance to the health and well-being of patients as professional nursing care

References

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• AMOS A., MARY A., JIE H., AND CHARLOTTE A. (2005) "The impact of team building on communication and job satisfaction of nursing staff." Journal for Nurses in Professional Development 21, no. 1: 10-16.
• BUNTING M. (2016)Who cares: the emotional labour of an undervalued, underpaid workforce, The Guardian, Teu 15 March 2016.
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• JANSEN, M. M., & ZWYGART-STAUFFACHER, M. (2006). Advanced practice nursing. New York, Springer Publishing Company.
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