Adult Nursing: Mental Health - Term Paper Example

Adult Nursing Introduction Regulation of healthcare industry plays a big role in protecting the public from various health risks as well as ensuring that care standards are maintained during delivery of healthcare (Bellhouse et al. 2013, p.25). Healthcare bodies are essential to guarantee compliance to health standards and providing safe healthcare to the public when they access the healthcare system. Additionally, the healthcare bodies monitor healthcare providers, promote safety and quality services, in addition to ensuring legal compliance (Bellhouse et al. 2013, p.25). This essay will focus on mental health and how Nursing and Midwifery Council and associated regulatory bodies seek to protect the public and maintain care standards. Mental health is the specialty of nursing that deals with individuals with mental illness or mental distress like dementia, depression or schizophrenia (Fisten et al, 2009, p.148). Nurses in mental health specialty are required to have additional training in aspects such as handling challenging behavior, administering psychiatric medication and various psychological treatments (Fisten et al, 2009, p.148). Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2015) regulates the nursing profession and thus also regulates nurses who work in the mental health specialty. The NMC was established by the parliament in order to protect the public by guaranteeing that nurses and midwives offer quality and high standards of care to their patients. NMC provides standards for education, practice and conduct and also advices the healthcare providers. Additionally, the NMC takes into account claims of misconduct of the healthcare providers or unfitness to practice. Mental health specialty deals with susceptible individuals and therefore healthcare providers taking care of people with mental illness should ensure that they protect and promote rights of these people by treating them with dignity and respecting their rights (Human Rights Commission, 2008, p.4). Therefore, the NMC protects the public by setting regulations that healthcare providers should abide by. According to NMC (2015, p.1) healthcare providers should treat each patient individually, be open, sympathetic and respect their dignity as well as their rights and choices regarding care and treatment. Taking into account that people with mental illness are emotionally susceptible, it is important for the healthcare providers to make sure that the people with mental illness and the public have trust them in providing a high standard of care, act legally, maintain their professional repute, be approachable and ensure that they make their patients their first and primary priority (Fleming, Gately and Kraemer, 2011, p.3). NMC Code of Conduct obligates healthcare providers to protect those under their care without any bias or discrimination (NMC 2015, p.2). Mental health patients may have challenging behaviors but healthcare providers have a duty of care and should protect their interests. Evidence has shown that people with mental illnesses often face discrimination in the society (Fisten et al, 2009, p.150). Therefore, the NMC protects the public and in this case people with mental illness against discrimination by obligating healthcare providers to treat everyone under their care without any prejudice. The NCM also clearly stipulates that healthcare providers should treat those under their care fairly basing on their needs (NCM 2015, p.4). Therefore, this regulation protects the public by ensuring that nurses do not go against the NMC’s code of conduct by discriminating against patients with mental illness. The NMC stresses that the health care providers should always seek consent prior to care delivery otherwise they might be brought a legal suit. This is supported by Hoge et al (2007, p.175) who explains that patients should always consent to treatment without being force, pressurize or being manipulated. Sometimes people with mental illness can be coursed or forced to receive treatment that they do not want on the basis that they do not have the capacity to make decisions (Fisten et al, 2009, p.149). Therefore, the NMC protects people with mental illness by ensuring that they are not administered with treatment without their consent. Whereas respecting the right of people with mental illness to consent to treatment, they should be assessed to find out if they have the capacity to make their own decisions (NMC 2015, p.6). In case a patient with mental illness lacks the capacity to make a decision, then the healthcare provider should seek consent from family or independent advocates. Therefore, this ensures that the rights of people are not breached and that healthcare providers do not continue with medical procedures and treatments that patients with mental illness and their family are against. The NMC (2015 p.2) code of conduct obligates nurses to have compassion to everybody under their care. People with mental illness are somehow sensitive and thus nurses being compassionate towards them greatly impacts their wellbeing. In addition, nurses are advocates for patients therefore they play a special role when compared to other healthcare providers since they are the healthcare providers who spend more time with patients (Kline and Khan 2013, p.5). Nurses are thus expected to create an effective professional nurse-patient. Establishing an effective nurse-patient relationship is really important to patients with mental illness because when there is a good patient-nurse relationship the patient is likely to trust the healthcare provider more and hence be freer and open up (Wortans, Happell and Johnston 2006, p.80). When patients with mental illness open up, they are likely to tell the healthcare provider the some of the life problems contributing to their condition and therefore some of the factors that contribute to their mental condition can be identified and addressed (Wortans, Happell and Johnston 2006, p.80). This goes to indicate the significance of NMC regulation in mental illness specialty. In addition nurses have a duty of educating their patients in accordance with the NMC and therefore nurses should ensure they educate the patients with mental illness regarding their condition inform them on advantages and disadvantages of various interventions. That way, the patients will be able to make an informed choice regarding any treatment and also be aware on how to address symptoms of mental illness as well as try to do away with any avoidable trigger of the mental illness and other mental disorders (Kline and Khan 2013, p.8). NMC regulation also obligates nurses to ensure that the patient’s physical, social and psychological needs are evaluated and responded to. Social and psychological factors play a big role in mental illness and mental disorders (Wortans et al, 2006, p.6). Therefore, by assessing the psychological and social factors of mentally ill patients helps them in ensuring that their wellbeing is promoted and all the causative factors of the illness are identified and responded to. As aforementioned, people with mental illness and metal disorders are among the vulnerable group and hence by upholding the NMC standards nurses also act as their advocates and hence challenges poor practices as well as the prejudiced attitudes and behaviors associated with people with mental illness. NMC (2015, p. 12) also requires nurse to ensure they fulfill registration requirements and practice accordingly as well as keep on updating their knowledge by participating in suitable and consistent learning and professional development activities in order to ensure their competence is maintained and developed in addition to improving their performance. According to Wortans et al (2006, p.8) restrictions to entry and requirement that nurses fulfill their registration requirements is important in protecting the public from unqualified healthcare providers. In addition, the required that nurses update their skills and knowledge regularly protects public including people with mental illness from incompetent healthcare providers. Fleming, Gately and Kraemer (2011, p.15) further add that protecting the public from quacks ensures that quality of care is maintained. Moreover, nurses who handle patients with mental illness are presented with intrinsic risks of psychological harm if not performed with the required knowledge, skills, decree and care. Mental health specialty is involved with various complexities and diversity and hence the requirement by NMC to have qualified, knowledgeable and skilled healthcare providers ensures that the healthcare providers have the ability to deal with complexities in this specialty (NMC 2015, p.12). Clinical governance codes stipulate the best practice and standards that every healthcare provider should conform to throughout the United Kingdom. NHS also has the responsibility of clinical governance by supervising all healthcare workers to make sure that high standards of care are provided (COI, 2010, p.8). Clinical governance focuses on both the patient care as well as quality improvements and this ensures that high standard of care is maintained and that healthcare providers do not repeat previous mistakes (Kline & Khan 2013, p.22). In regard to mental health specialty, clinical governance ensures that people with mental illness receive quality care and high standards of care. Nurses in mental health specialty often face ethical issues during deliver of care. NMC obligates healthcare providers to treat people as individuals and maintain their dignity while respecting their diversity (NMC 2015, p.2). In regard to people with people with mental illness, nurses should comprehensively understand the oppression that comes with mental health and take into consideration social diversity factors that are involved in mental health (Wortans, Happell and Johnston 2006, p.82). Deontology and teleology ethics are particularly important in mental health specialty. Deontology stresses that regulations governing behavior and individuals ought to keep them of society’s duty but this duty is questionable in case an individual’s beliefs conflict with the duties Pritts J, 2008. For instance, restricting people with mental illness maybe by chaining them is prohibited as per deontology while teleology perceives this as appropriate for the greater good. Such ethics are important in mental health to ensure that the nurses make prudent decisions while handling people with mental illness. Mental health specialty involves a lot of privacy and confidentiality issues. This is because people with mental illness may disclose confidential information to their healthcare providers and at times they may disclose confidential information unknowingly (Pritts 2008, p.31). NMC obligates the healthcare providers to respect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals. Therefore, nurses dealing with patients with mental illness owe a duty of confidentiality to these patients by ensuring that they respect these individual’s right to privacy in each and every aspect of their care and always informing them on how and the reason the information is utilized and share by those giving care (Pritts 2008, p.32). As a result, NMC guarantees privacy and confidentiality of all patients. Still, NMC stipulates that nurses and midwives are legally accountable and they also owe a duty to not only their patients but also their employer (NMC 2015, p12). Nurses are accountable for their own actions also for actions of those under them such as student nurses. “As a professional, you are personally accountable for actions and omissions in your practice, and must always be able to justify your decisions” (NMC 2015, p.12). Therefore, this protects the public in that a nurse in a mental health specialty will always ensure that he or she gives her best and does not provide poor quality of care because in case of poor health outcome that can be associated with negligence will not only have job consequences but also legal consequences. Conclusion This essay has analyzed how NMC seeks to protect the public in mental health scope and how it ensures that high quality of care is provided. NMC regulation plays and important role in protecting the people with mental illness and the public at large from incompetent and ineffective care and also ensures that these patients receive quality care. NMC plays an important role in protecting the privacy and confidentiality of people with mental illness because it obligates nurses to always maintain confidentiality of those under their care. In addition, people are prevented from quack healthcare providers because NMC obligates registration requirements that should be fulfilled before practicing and therefore saves the public from many health and safety risks. In addition, NMC guarantees people with mental illness high quality care and also ensures that the health care providers do not discriminate against them due to their mental health during delivery of care. References Bellhouse J., Holland A., Clare I.C.H., Watson P & Gunn M, 2013, Capacity-based mental health legislation and its impact on clinical practice: 2) treatment in hospital, Journal of Mental Health Law. 24–37. COI, 2010, Title Front Line Care: the future of nursing and midwifery in England. Report of the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England 2010, London, COI. Fisten E, Holland A, Clare I & Gunn M, 2009, A comparison of mental health legislation from diverse Commonwealth jurisdictions, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 32(3): 147–155. Fleming, J., Gately, N. & Kraemer, S, 2011, Creating HoPE: Mental Health in Western Australian Maximum Security Prisons, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, doi:10.1080/13218719.2010.54340. Hoge S.K., Lidz C.W., Eisenberg M., Gardner W., Monahan J & Mulvey E, 2007, Perceptions of coercion in the admission of voluntary and involuntary psychiatric patients, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 20(2):167–181. Human Rights Commission, 2008, Human Rights and Seclusion in Mental Health Services Human Rights Commission Report, Human Rights Commission. Kline R & Khan S, 2013, The Duty of Care of Healthcare Professionals, London, Public World. Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2015, The Code Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses and midwives, Nursing and Midwifery Council. Pritts J, 2008, The Importance and Value of Protecting the Privacy of Health Information: The Roles of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Common Rule in Health Research, George Town, National Academy of Sciences. Wortans R, Happell R & Johnston H, 2006, The role of the nurse practitioner in psychiatric/mental health nursing: exploring consumer satisfaction, Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 13, 78–84. Read More