Midwifery Council Code Research Articles

Research placements: are they a suitable alternative for student nurses?

COVID-19 has affected those undertaking courses in higher education, especially programmes in health care with clinical placements. Many student nurses were unable to undertake their planned clinical placements and had to adjust to self-directed learning and an increase in simulated learning. As a suitable alternative to clinical placements, a research placement for two second-year BSc adult nursing students was trialled, and this article presents an account from one placement. The academic team devised specific questions for students to consider for their research electives and provided a template for their written work with the aim of writing up a weekly report to reflect their learning. In particular, the students had to identify how their learning related to the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council code of conduct. The research placement was successful and shows great potential, offering students tangible opportunities to seek out the evidence for themselves and use it to inform their clinical practice.

Spirituality and the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code

This series of articles will explore the intersections of spirituality with the delivery of contemporary healthcare within a number of healthcare and nursing environments. This third article will set out and explore issues around the assessment of spirituality and a range of tools that could be useful in assessing spirituality with patients or service users.

Caring for people from Northern Ireland seeking termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormality

Despite legalisation of termination of pregnancy in Northern Ireland (NI) in 2020 many women are unable to access safe termination there. This article will focus on pregnant women and people who travel to England from NI to undergo late-stage (after 13 weeks gestation) termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormality (ToPFA) and the roles midwives and student midwives in England, Scotland and Wales play in caring for these clients in relation to the standards set in the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code.1

The voice of stoma care nurses: an exploration of stoma care in England

This article is part two of a series presenting the findings of stakeholder surveys with ostomates and stoma care nurses (SCNs) for stoma services in England. Part one explored the experiences of ostomates. This article focuses on the views and experiences of 108 SCNs in England. To understand the experience of SCNs in England in relation to current services provided. This includes the scope of the SCN role, the service they provide, and SCN experience and views on areas for improvement. SCNs were invited to share their experiences and views in a national online survey. Questions considered the experience of the nurse, where the care they provide is delivered, how their post is funded and their views on current issues such as responsibility for managing waste of stoma product. Two free-text questions asked what areas of stoma care services worked well and what areas could be improved, results of which were coded and thematically analysed. Themes included patient care, industry involvement and prescribing process. Overall, survey respondents felt that they provided a good standard of care. Nurses reported complex industry relationships. Awareness of the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code, Bribery Act 2010 and NHS England guidance on managing conflicts of interest is advocated, as is promoting transparency in funding arrangements. It was noted that there appears to be variation in the care provided to ostomates.

Spirituality and the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code

This series of articles will explore the intersections of spirituality with the delivery of contemporary health care within a number of healthcare and nursing environments. This second article will set out and explore the Nursing and Midwifery Council code of professional conduct with regards to spiritual care, along with a tentative exploration of what ‘spiritual care’ looks like.

The Vitruvian nurse and burnout: New materialist approaches to impossible ideals.

The Vitruvian Man is a metaphor for the "ideal man"by feminist posthuman philosopher Rosi Braidotti (2013) as a proxy for eurocentric humanist ideals. The first half of this paper extends Braidotti's concept by thinking about the metaphor of the "ideal nurse"(Vitruvian nurse) and how this metaphor contributes to racism, oppression, and burnout in nursing and might restrict the professionalization of nursing. The Vitruvian nurse is an idealized and perfected form of a nurse with self-sacrificial language (re)producing self-sacrificing expectations. The second half of this paper looks at how regulatory frameworks (using the example of UK's Nursing and Midwifery CouncilCode of Conduct) institutionalize the conditions of possibility through collective imaginations. The domineering expectations found within the Vitruvian nurse metaphor and further codified by regulatory frameworks giverise to boredom and burnout. The paper ends by suggesting possible ways to diffract regulatory frameworks to practice with affirmative ethics and reduce feelings of self-sacrifice and exhaustion amongnurses.

Acupressure For Induction And Augmentation Of Labour

This article reports on a case of the successful use of acupressure for induction and augmentation of labour for a post-maturity in a home birth setting. Induction of labour is increasing worldwide, and with its holistic approach to care, it offers a potential opportunity to reduce the medicalisation of childbirth and enhance childbearing women’s and people’s choice about the place of birth, even when a pregnancy goes beyond the estimated date of birth. Practising acupressure could allow midwives to provide more options to mothers, fathers and parents, enabling them to experience a safer and more natural childbirth or to feel more in control during their pregnancy and birth. Acupressure, as a complementary therapy, may offer midwives a chance to expand their role as autonomous practitioners, particularly when training mothers to perform this themselves and retain their own autonomy. However, midwives must only use such approaches when properly trained and in line with the regulation of their country or state, and in line with the rules and protocols of their employer. In the UK, midwives must only practise in accordance with the Nursing & Midwifery Council Code of Conduct (2018),1 and must ensure that they are competent and safe to offer complementary therapies within their roles.

Exploring the role of reflection in nurse education and practice.

Reflection is an essential element in every nurse's practice and is embedded in the Nursing and Midwifery Council's code of conduct - the UK nursing regulatory body's code of professional standards of practice and behaviour. The application of reflection to practice has clear advantages, for example it enables nurses to learn from clinical events and adapt and enhance their skills. This article explores the role of reflection in nursing practice, considers the use of reflective models and explores how nurses can overcome barriers to reflection in their everyday practice. These barriers include psychological stress or discomfort when revisiting challenging clinical experiences, which may have been exacerbated during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

What makes for a good nursing handover?

This article discusses the important part that the nursing handover plays in providing quality care to patients and the smooth running of the shift and clinical area. Following an introduction stating exactly what is meant by a handover, the relevant and pertinent parts of the Nursing and Midwifery Council code will then be identified and discussed. The importance of good communication as well as delegation will be discussed, before moving on to identify potential issues to achieving a quality nursing handover and ways to overcome these. Finally, the role of the support worker and nursing associate will be made clear.

Justice: what is it and how can you ensure your patients receive it?

This article discusses the important concept of justice, one of the four ethical principles developed by Beauchamp and Childress (2019) . Gillon (1994) divided justice into three categories: distributive justice, rights-based justice and legal justice. Justice also forms an important part of British values regarding democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. Following an introduction defining what is meant by the term ‘justice’, the relevant parts of the Nursing Midwifery Council code ( NMC, 2018a ) will be identified and presented. There will then follow a discussion on the three categories of justice as laid out by Gillon (1994) and how justice fits in with British values. Finally, this discussion will point towards how justice can be achieved for the patients in your care and the colleagues you work alongside.

The importance of person-centred care and how to achieve it

This article discusses the important concept of person-centred care and how this can be achieved. Following an introduction defining what is meant by this term and contrasting it with the term patient-centred care, the relevant and pertinent parts of the Nursing and Midwifery Council code will then be identified and discussed. The four principles of person-centred care will then be presented. The role of the support worker and nursing associate will be made clear in how the wishes and needs of patients can be gained. Self-awareness, emotional intelligence and communication will be discussed in relation to this. Finally, two potential barriers to the successful achievement of person-centred care will be identified.

The importance of the hospital playroom

This article discusses the important role that playrooms provide for children when they are in hospital, either as inpatients, outpatients or even as visitors. Following an introduction highlighting the importance of play, the background to hospital playrooms will be identified. Links to the Nursing and Midwifery Council code will then be made, before discussing and highlighting the clear benefits of having designated and bespoke children's playrooms. However, there is a cautionary note: not all playrooms are being used for the purpose they were designed for. This other inappropriate use can prevent children from accessing playrooms when they need them, or even worse, are being subjected to clinical procedures within them. This will be highlighted and discussed. Finally, the role of the support worker and nursing associate will be made clear in how they can support children in accessing play opportunities within their clinical areas.

Perceptions of midwives with visible body art: OK or no way?

The Nursing and Midwifery Council Code instructs midwives to treat women as individuals and ‘avoid making assumptions and recognise diversity and individual choice’. Tattoos and piercings are becoming increasingly popular forms of body art, with estimates suggesting that up to 36% of people under 40 have at least one tattoo. Anecdotal evidence suggests that tattoos, piercings and ‘creative’ hair styles and colours may elicit negative opinions and stereotyping of an individual's character and lifestyle choices in the past. Discussions have recently focused on the clinical impact of tattoos and piercings on pregnancy in relation to possible complications in care; however, as cultural norms evolve, tattoos and piercings are becoming mainstream, and so this article will use a case study to examine how tattoos and ‘colourful’ hair are perceived by colleagues and the women in a maternity setting.

Caring Matters Most

Written in the first person and illustrated by stories, this book cuts right across the conventional bioethics that underpin the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code.

Preserving safety within the care home environment

The Nursing and Midwifery Council's code of conduct demands that registered nurses do what they can to make sure that the safety of those in their care is protected. In this article, Adrian Ashurst discusses what this means in the context of revalidation

Understanding the Nursing and Midwifery Council's code

The Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) code of conduct is something that all nurses in the UK must adhere to in order to practise. In this article, Adrian Ashurst offers his personal view of the importance of the NMC Code in the care home environment

Student life - Preserving safety.

In addition to providing compassionate care and administering correct treatments, the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code states that nurses must keep patients and the public safe and free from harm.

Student life - How to practise effectively.

Referring to the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code's second theme - practise effectively; think what effective nursing care means to you and how this has an impact on the essence of quality care.

Guidance on the professional duty of candour for aesthetic nurses

Although aesthetic medicine is perceived to be a taboo discipline, nurses specialising in this area are still bound by the Nursing and Midwifery Council's Code and professional guidance. Aesthetic nurses must therefore comply with the recently published guidelines on the duty of candour and continue to be open and honest with their patients. Julie Brackenbury explains how the guidance applies to independent practitioners

The NMC should know spiritual care is as important as ever.

I support the campaign to have spirituality included in the Nursing and Midwifery Council's code of conduct (Reflections, April 29). I was disturbed to find that it was not there when the new Code was published in March.