Not Just About Saying 'love' Or 'dearie'- NMC To Approve Guidance For Nursing Care Of Older People

The NMC is set to approve this important new guidance on 3 December 2008 - which covers a wide range of topics such as communication, personal hygiene and maintaining privacy and dignity.


Essential principles


The guidance, to be published in 2009, will contain essential principles for the UK's 674,000 nurses, who represent 35 per cent of the NHS clinical workforce, to interpret their professional Code of conduct, performance and ethics as it applies to older people.


Consultation


It was constructed around the views of older people, the result of extensive consultation in 2008 by the NMC which included nurses, midwives, a wide range of external organisations and families involved in the care of older people. It sets out what older people expect when receiving care and therefore provides a framework to help nurses focus on the issues which matter most to older people they are caring for.


The guidance can be used as a tool to challenge poor standards of care and provides employers with a set of principles to judge performance against.


Individual needs


Ruth Chauhan, project lead for the care of older people at the NMC, said:


"Although most nurses know what they should be doing they do not always do it. For example it is essential that nurses, in a hospital or community setting, always provide fundamental care by ensuring adequate fluids, help to eat and give assistance with personal hygiene when required. Nurses should also ensure continence needs are met, observing for signs of pain and providing pain relief, and above all ensure that older people's privacy and dignity is respected.


"Our own Code is very clear that nurses should treat people as individuals and respect their dignity which includes finding out what they would like to be called and then using their preferred name rather than just using terms of endearment. Most importantly it is about listening to older people, hearing what they are saying and valuing each person by meeting their individual needs."


"A great deal of work has been done by Departments of Health, organisations and individuals particularly in relation to dignity in care. Those reports and guidelines should be used with this guidance from the NMC to inform best practice.


"Although this guidance is for nurses and midwives who are registered with NMC, it could be used in training or as a benchmark for principles of care delivery by all members of multi-disciplinary teams caring for older people, including healthcare support workers."


The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. To be eligible to work as a nurse or midwife in the UK, they must be registered with the NMC. There are currently more than 674,000 nurses and midwives on the register. The primary purpose of the NMC is to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses and midwives to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct.


Nursing & Midwifery Council