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Discuss the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (ANMC) National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse and the ANMC s of Ethics and Professional Conduct (see www.anmc.org.au to access documents) as they shape the registered nurse role and as they contribute to your understanding of your preparation as a registered nurse. Use the ANMC National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse as well as the ANMC Codes of Ethics and Professional Conduct as an underpinning to describe and evaluate your preparation for registered nursing clinical practice. This requires that you crystallise, reflect upon and document aspects of your professional development. You will do this through your reflections on both successful and less successful instances from your own learning and clinical practice. Your reflection should be informed by the available literature and integrate any and evidence of your claims from assessments and specific relevant, learning experiences or incidents. From this evaluation you are required to present an assessment of your current readiness for the role and how you might use the knowledge and insight thus far gained to improve or further develop and advance your practice in the future.   Introduction: The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC) has developed National Competency Standards that provide a framework for professional nursing practice taking into account the various roles and functions of nurses identifying the qualities that a successful and good nurse should have. The three major standards of professional nursing are · The ANCI National Competency Standards for Registered and Enrolled Nurses · The Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia · The Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia (ANCI, 2000) The competency standards take account of the various roles and functions nurses fulfil and identify a combination of the attributes a competent nurse must have. The purpose of competency standards implemented and referred to by Nurse regulatory authorities are to   · communicate to consumers the competency standards that they can expect of nurses; this relates to the nurse attributes that the patients or clients can expect · determine the eligibility for registration of people who have undertaken nursing courses in Australia; this aims to match trained skills with personal attributes · determine the eligibility for registration of nurses who wish to practise in Australia but have undertaken courses elsewhere; this factor is related to the general or universal nursing skills expected in all nurses · assess nurses who wish to return to work after being out of the work force for a defined period; which suggests that nurses have to be not only trained but updated and advanced training needs to be provided and · assess qualified nurses who are required to show they are fit to continue working implying that nurses physical and psychological health and suitability are equally important in determining their productivity. (ANCI, 200; ANMC, 2002)   Competencies and Preparation as a Registered Nurse The implications of being a nurse may be wide and several attributes are expected in a competent nurse. The competencies of a good nurse as expected by the patients, health authorities and training institutions can be discussed according to the specifications of Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC) which has developed National Competency Standards. A nurse in this context is referred to an individual who is registered or enrolled and authorised to practise in a state or territory of Australia. The role of the nurse involves care and nurture of human beings irrespective of their ethnicity, culture, gender, spiritual values, sexuality, disability, age, economic, social or health status, or other factors (ANMC, 2003). The primary professional responsibility of a nurse is to provide care and support to people requiring nursing. Nurses thus have responsibility to provide care and support before and during birth , throughout life, and alleviate pain and suffering during the dying process so nurses are a part of a persons entire life, from birth to death (ANMC, . Nurses enable individuals, families and groups to maintain, restore or improve their health status, or to be cared for, supported and comforted when deterioration of health has become irreversible. Nurses help in providing the schedule for medication, therapy and counselling and also provide physical and psychological support in life threatening illnesses providing care needs for long term residential care or disabled patients (ANMC, 2003). According to Professional Codes of Conduct, a nurse is required to practise in accordance with the agreed standards of the profession and conform to the standards expected by the patient or health authorities. For any delegated aspect of care, it is the nurses responsibility to ensure that the care schedule and provisions are appropriate without compromising the safety or care needs of the individual. The ANMC specifies that a nurse is personally accountable for the provision of safe and competent nursing care as provided to the patients. Therefore it is the responsibility of each nurse to maintain the required competence necessary for current practice (Code of PC, ANMC, 2003). Some of these areas of competencies are: Professional and Ethical Practice -- these are the competencies that relate to legal and ethical responsibilities. The nurses are expected to be aware of all ethical and legal aspects of the profession and thus should be able to demonstrate a satisfactory knowledge base, they should be accountable for practice, and should function in accordance with legislation that affect the nursing standards and profession, and be especially knowledgeable of issues related to the protection of individuals and group rights. (ANCI. 2000) Critical Thinking and Analysis - Reflection in practice is one of the major learning methods for practising nurses and a sharp analytical thinking is one of the key competencies. This also relates to self-appraisal, professional development and understanding and appreciating the values or significance of researching nursing practice. Thus reflecting on practice, self correction, self evaluation, feelings and beliefs and the consequences of these for clients, has been considered an important professional attribute. Management of Care - Competencies in this area relate to the assessment of patients/clients, planning, implementation and the evaluation of care. This also has implications of management or scheduling of care, provisions of services, hierarchical structures within a clinical setting and patient service management in general. Enabling - These are competencies essential for establishing and sustaining the nurse/patient relationship. The patients have a dependent relationship on the nurse thus the nurse is responsible for providing a safe and pleasant environment for the patients. These competencies integrate the maintenance of safety, skills in interpersonal and therapeutic relationships, and communication and organisational skills to ensure the provisions of care. It also includes the ability to interact or collaborate with other members of the health care team (ANCI, 2000). Some of the key competencies in nursing practice or attributes that are expected in a nurse are given as demonstrating legal knowledge or knowledge of law pertaining to nursing practice, demonstrating knowledge of health policies and procedural guidelines of health authorities, being able to fulfil the duty of care in nursing practice, being able to identify the good standards of nursing practice , detect unsafe practices and makes provisions for safety, being able to recognise breaches of law or illegal practice within the clinical setting and take appropriate measures. The ethical competencies relates to nursing practice in accordance with the code of ethic and conduct specified by the health authorities, knowledge of contemporary ethical issues in nursing, effective involvement in decision making, and being able to maintain confidentiality in information acquired in professional capacity as nurse. The role of the nurse is not just personal and professional development, but also managerial aspects of decision making, and acknowledging the rights of individuals and groups in a clinical setting and ensuring that these rights are maintained. Other managerial aspects include respecting individual and groups values, customs, spiritual beliefs and practices as well as diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, gender or age. All patients are to be treated equally, justly and in accordance with professional nursing standards and all patients, as individuals or group are encouraged to actively participate in the care approach, plans and the entire process of care. The nurses are also expected to be sensitive to diversity and meet the spiritual, cultural and emotional needs of the diverse groups of patients and provide updated health information to patient and encourage their participation in decision making (ANCI, 2000; Pearson et al, 1992). A competent nurse recognises her own limitations, strengths and weaknesses as well as her knowledge base and areas of competence. For complicated cases, consultations with other experienced senior nurses should be sought and appropriate health members, even physicians should be consulted. Critical thinking, analysis and reflective practice are important attributes in professional development and nurses should use professional standards to assess and evaluate self performance. Along with self evaluation, nurses are required to aid in the professional development of other health care professionals and a support framework is identified for fulfilling and recognising learning needs. The ability to keep pace with the new research findings and have intellectual interests in nursing research and published findings is also important as competent nurses are expected to incorporate new research findings into nursing practice and contribute to the process of new research findings in nursing. A competent nurse also has to be a sharp and efficient manger and formulate care plans for all individual patients, use a structured approach in assessment, collect data on individual patient health and interpret the data to analyse and understand care needs (Pearson et al, 1992). Providing planned care, determining the care schedule, following up on the care provided, educating and promoting health needs of individuals and evaluating expected progress on planned outcomes are some of the main duties in nursing. Other responsibilities include establishing and maintaining caring, therapeutic and effective interpersonal relationships as well as providing supportive health care strategies with collaboration of other health care team members to provide the best health care services to the clients. Reflections on Practice - Analysing Competencies Considering all the competencies that a registered nurse is expected to posses, I can analyse my own competencies and achievements, strengths, weaknesses and provide a reflective appraisal of my abilities with specific instances and experiences. In my experiences of nursing, my ability to analyse and assess information makes me competent in managerial and planning areas. As a nurse, my strong points are assessment, and being able to identify specific patient needs in terms of care, and services or care plans that need to be provided or drawn up. I am also aware of nursing ethics and standards, research literature and keep myself updated on major nursing events, and research findings. The ethical standard of nursing, the codes of conduct and procedural guidelines are also important to me and I follow them to maintain complete professionalism and the strictest standards of service. However my weaknesses may be related to inadequate reflective appraisal of my strengths and weaknesses with regard to specific nursing cases and this is an area in which I would work on in the future. What I have learnt from specific cases, what were my shortcomings or drawbacks, what were my flaws and how can I improve, these are issues I need to consider and this can only be done through practice rather than any theoretical attainment of knowledge. My ability to work collaboratively is also a strong point yet I need to be more effective as a communicator and build a strong supportive framework for patients and colleagues to work in more efficient manner. As a nursing and health care professional, my strengths can be given as 1. Knowledge of updated code of ethics and conduct 2. Maintaining and following established rules and codes of professional practice 3. Being informative and keeping updated on procedures, guidelines and research findings pertaining to nursing profession 4. Good managerial abilities and ability to plan and formulate a care schedule maintaining records and updated information on progress of each patient. This is manifested through my personal attribute of maintaining records and monitoring patient progress 5. Ability to analyse and interpret data and use this information to come up with appropriate care plans and therapeutic intervention for patients 6. Ability to work collaboratively and in association as a team member in a health care setting 7. Ability to work with diverse and varied workgroups, and individuals or patients Some of my weaknesses can be given as 1. A need to sharpen reflective skills and critical appraisals of one’s abilities - this can be improved through practice and experiences as I expect 2. A need to develop more effective methods of communication and collaboration and encourage a more supportive framework for colleagues and patients to provide efficient services 3. Maintaining accurate documentation and more appreciation or encouragement of colleagues’ efforts and other nurses - should also develop along with experience 4. A better understanding and evaluation of my competencies and accepting accountability are points that have to be emphasised 5. I have to be more effective and knowledgeable in individual rights and responsibilities so that I can provide better guidance to clients in these areas 6. I should contribute more to my own professional development and that of others through more independent and creative thinking, analytical abilities and group efforts. Conclusions: In this essay, I have provided an appraisal of my strengths, weaknesses and readiness for the role of a nurse in the context of professional codes and competency standards provided by health and nursing authorities. Bibliography ANCI NATIONAL COMPETENCY STANDARDS FOR THE REGISTERED NURSE 3RD EDITION May 2000 Australian Nursing Council Inc.   Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (ANMC) National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse www.anmc.org.au ANMC Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses In Australia, 2003 ANMC Codes of Ethics for Nurses in Australia , 2002.    Australian Nursing Council Incorporated (1993) National Competencies for the Registered and Enrolled Nurse. Australian Nursing Council Inc., Canberra.   Australian Nursing Council Incorporated (1993) Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia. Australian Nursing Council Inc., Canberra. Pearson A, Hocking S, Mott S, Riggs A. Management and leadership in Australian nursing homes. Nurs Pract. 1992;5(2):24-8.   Read More