The Sole Duty Of The Health Care Professionals And The Nurses

Question: Discuss about the Sole Duty Of The Health Care Professionals And The Nurses. Answer: Introduction The sole duty of the health care professionals and the nurses is to improve the access and the quality of the health care for the public. They are responsible for promoting the essential services that promotes good health to individuals, families and the communities. This paper discuses about the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (HPCA) Act (2003) and theNursing Council of New Zealands (NCNZ) Code of Conduct aiming to increase the competence of the health care professionals and providing an insight to how the codes of conduct actually helps in the professional development of the health care professionals. Discussion HPCA act is the health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 provides a legislative framework for the regulation of the health care professionals for providing a safe care to the public ("Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act", 2018). The HPCA act provides the basic principles that differentiate the disciplinary process form the legislative process. The HPCA act provides a frame work that is meant not only for the doctor but also to the other health practitioners, whereas theNursing Council of New Zealands (NCNZ) Code of Conduct only refers to the code of conducts for the nurses and the midwives (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2018). It acts as an important tool for improving the competence of the health practitioners. Both the Act and the codes of conduct helps in the interpersonal development of the nurses and provide a safe care to the patients. The ministry of health has also taken up tobacco control program and about $61.7 million is spent on the tobacco control p rogram ("DHB", 2018). The tobacco control program involves interventions like stopping people from smoking. It has been found that the health initiative taken by the ministry of health has decreased the current smoking status by the adults by 33 %. Some of the priority programs taken by the ministry of health are healthy eating healthy action, Clinical service development, Cancer control and Tobacco policy (" DHB", 2018). TheNursing council of New Zealand thus have established new codes of nursing for the protection of the health and the safety of the population by setting higher standards of clinical proficiency, Cultural competence and ethical demeanor among the nurses. Thenursing codes of conduct are framed centering four core values- Trust, respect, integrity and partnership and 8 principles (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2018). The main purpose of this code of conduct is to give protection to the public by providing means for ensuring that the health care professionals are capable and fit to their professions. Today's nurses should have several elements in order to practice nursing with competence and integrity. The codes of conduct of the nurses set out the standards that the nurses are supposed to uphold in their professional career. One of the core values of the code of conduct is trust. It helps the nurses and the midwives to realize that it is important to develop a relationship of trust with the health care consumers (Butts, 2013). Development of trust between the patient and the families enables to think that the nurses care for them (Burgess, 2008). The code of conduct enables the nurses to take care of the dignity and the integrity of the patient. Patient advocacy is one of the important roles in nursing where the nurses influence the decision making in skills (Burgess, 2008). Nurses often have to part of interdisciplinary teams, where all the health care professionals have to play their specific parts. Hence nurses also have to be team players in order to remain in frontline with the doctors in the decision making process (Butts, 2013). Florence Nightingale believed that the ethical duty is the first and the foremost duty for the nurses. This perception underpins the description of ethics in the nursing profession till today (Straughair, 2012). Her exceptional contribution towards care delivery to the soldiers during the Crimean war is still an inspiration for the present day nurses. Under her influence the military health care system consisting of filthy health care wards were transformed in to clean, sanitary medical wards that provided the main framework of the present day nursing (Straughair, 2012). Conclusion The HPCA act and the codes of conduct helps in outlining the mission and the values of the health care professionals, how they are going to approach the problems, the legislative regulations and the codes of ethics that helps them in proving a patient centered care. References Burgess, M. (2008). A guide to the law for nurses and midwives. North Shore, N.Z.: Pearson Prentice Hall. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Dt9lLQAACAAJdq=Burgess,+M.+(2008).+A+guide+to+the+law+for+nurses+and+midwives.+North+Shore,+N.Z.:+Pearson+Prentice+Hall.hl=ensa=Xved=0ahUKEwib-tCj8NbZAhUDOI8KHcZkD4EQ6AEILzAB Butts, J. B. (2013). Ethics in professional nursing practice (pp. 81-93). Jones and Bartlett Publishers. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=enlr=id=9R_ET0JLvEwCoi=fndpg=PA69dq=codes+of+conducts+for+the+nurses+in+newzealandots=faE8KWbw5Dsig=B9Ckrvr3VCYWlzOhLO9dIoQwtd8#v=onepageqf=false DHB. (2018).Ministry of Health NZ. Retrieved 28 March 2018, from https://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/my-dhb Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act. (2018). Ministry of Health NZ. Retrieved 5 March 2018, from https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/health-practitioners-competence-assurance-act Nursing Council of NewZealand. (2018). Code of conduct for nurses. Retrieved from https://www.nursingcouncil.org.nz/Nurses/Code-of-Conduct Straughair, C. (2012). Exploring compassion: implications for contemporary nursing. Part 1.British Journal of Nursing,21(3), 160-164.