NCT Watch

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) launched a new Code for the UK’s 674,000 nurses and midwives to mark World Health Day. The updated version of the Code Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives comes into effect on 1 May 2008.

The Code, which was launched with events held in Edinburgh, Belfast, Glamorgan and London, is the foundation of good nursing and midwifery practice and a key tool in safeguarding the health and wellbeing of the public.  It has been updated to meet the ever changing requirements of today’s nurses and midwives and aims to clarify expectations; setting out for nurses and midwives what is expected of them as professionals, and showing members of the public what standard of care they can expect to receive. The amendments made were agreed upon after an extensive review process, including consultation with nurses, midwives and members of the public. 

Rather than setting out pages of rules, which would be unsuitable considering the varied roles and individual patient needs, the pocket-sized Code provides a broad set of principles that nurses and midwives can apply to their own area of practise and the diverse environments in which patients receive care