With reference to the NMC Professional Code of Conduct (2008) how should a nurse act in order to promote and maintain a client’s dignity Essay Example

With reference to the NMC Professional Code of Conduct (2008) how should a nurse act in order to promote and maintain a client’s dignity? Essay 34 year old Mary White is in your care. She has limited mobility which means that she is unable to walk without assistance. Her chronic and life limiting condition has recently led to a problem with eating and drinking and now Mary is unable to feed herself (although she can take food from a spoon and drink from a beaker) and requires total assistance in this activity. Whilst her body has deteriorated and her speech is limited Mary White’s cognitive function is intact although she is tearful and depressed. It is meal time and you are preparing to attend to Mary White’s nutritional needs. Objectives: †¢ Define the concept of dignity and discuss the importance of dignity in nursing care †¢ Discuss how the Code of Professional Conduct (NMC 2008) will guide your actions †¢ What are the issues that need to be considered when helping a patient to eat and drink †¢ What skills would you need to use to encourage Mary to eat and drink †¢ Reflect on how your understanding of dignity in health care may affect your future practice We will write a custom essay sample on With reference to the NMC Professional Code of Conduct (2008) how should a nurse act in order to promote and maintain a client’s dignity? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on With reference to the NMC Professional Code of Conduct (2008) how should a nurse act in order to promote and maintain a client’s dignity? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on With reference to the NMC Professional Code of Conduct (2008) how should a nurse act in order to promote and maintain a client’s dignity? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Essay: Nurses play an important role in the healthcare industry. It is required of them to take care of difficult and uncooperative patients. Their services are invaluable in the domain of palliative care as well. But in recent years, from being a humanitarian service, nursing has grown into a specialized branch of healthcare industry. The profession of Nursing has undergone several changes over the last few decades. From being an ad hoc service, it has now become a separate field of study in its own right. As a result of growing expectations, new standards of accountability have also been developed and enforced. This is true here in the UK and much of the developed world (Tortora, 2005). This essay will deal with Scenario Two, namely that of patient Mary. By referring to the recently constituted Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Professional Code of Conduct this essay will layout the dos and don’ts for a Nurse in the hypothetical scenario of caring for patient Mary. The Code of Conduct is a comprehensive document that outlines the core responsibilities of Nurses in the United Kingdom. Each aspect of nursing is neatly organized under a separate heading with two further levels of relevant subheadings. The first principle to be followed is stated as â€Å"Make the care of people your first concern, treating them as individuals and respecting their dignity†. Here, the key concept is ‘dignity’. In fact, it would not be far fetched to state that ‘dignity’ is at the centre of all nursing activity. In the case of Mary, since she is immobile and has limited speaking ability, it is quite easy to forget that she is a full human being. A testament to her complete humanness is her fully functioning cognition. While Mary might not be able to articulate what she wants or what she feels, she can feel pain, hurt, anger, disappointment, happiness, etc. In other words, the entire gamut of human emotion is accessible to her f unctioning brain, although recognition of this fact might escape a casual observer at first (Marieb, 2005). As a Nurse adhering to the principles set forth in the Code of Conduct, I would first let Mary know that I treat her on par with any other human being. While taking complete care of a bed ridden patient can at times get tedious and monotonous, I would find ways of circumventing these. The best way of avoiding the monotony associated with nursing a bed ridden patient is by developing a personal bond with her. In the case of Mary, I will express through my words, gestures and general demeanour that I really care about her health and well being. Since Mary’s cognitive functions are fully alright, she can hear and understand what I am speaking to her. As any good nurse will do, I will attempt to win over her confidence and trust through my words and actions. A pedagogic approach would be unsuitable in the case of Mary, as her health condition is not frequently encountered in nursing practice. A more flexible and pragmatic approach would be more suitable. For example, a NMC president Nancy Kirkland says, â€Å"Rather than be prescriptive in the Code and set out pages and pages of rules that might be inappropriate and might not arise in different circumstances, we felt it would be better to use this other approach which allows the profession to use their professional judgement, relevant to the situation they are in† (www.nmc-uk.org, 2008). Considering the fact that Mary cannot verbally communicate her likes and dislikes, it is imperative that I understand what and when she likes to eat. As the broader Code of Conduct document spells out, collaborating with Mary would entail making arrangements to meet her language and communication needs. Moreover, I must share information with her in a way she can understand and the information that she seeks about her health is also duly provided her. The limited mobility available to Mary would allow her to nod in approval or disapproval of the food I am feeding her. Before I make preparations for her meal, I would intimate her of the items I have chosen for her meal. I would observe her subtle reaction and understand what she is trying to communicate. It is important that I do not force her to do something she does not want too. While the food chosen by me might adhere to the recommendations made by the nutritionist, I can still exercise discretion in tailoring it to Maryâ⠂¬â„¢s preferences. As the Code of Conduct documents indicate, â€Å"Patients who have had a stroke may have difficulty in communicating. Nurses need to be alert to this, particularly if these patients are being treated fro and unrelated conditions as their communication need could be overlooked†. (www.nmc-uk.org, 2008) There are issues of practical convenience that need to be considered in feeding Mary. I will make sure that she is comfortably seated and that she assumes a suitable posture for eating food. I would observe if Mary is able to masticate the spoon fed morsel of food. If she has difficulty in chewing the intake properly, then I might resort to a semi-solid meal – one which could be easily swallowed. There are other such contingencies that could arise in the process of feeding Mary. But all times, I would adhere to the recommendations of the nutritionist and all times avoid those food items that had invoked allergic reactions in Mary in the past. It is also important to remember that Mary is showing signs of depression. Depressed patients will not generally have a healthy appetite. Their general lack of interest in life would mean that they are disinterested in food as well. There have been a few cases of injudicious action by nurses in the last few years. There are functional laws within the jurisdiction of theUnited Kingdomthat provide legal recourse to hospitalized patients who are provided negligent or inappropriate care by nurses. The following passage, taken from The Journal, dated November 25, 2005 illustrates this point: â€Å"A midwife from South Tyneside Hospital is facing a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing, charged with not giving appropriate care to two patients between September and October 2003. Siew Seng Bradwell, 51, fromSouth Shieldswill appear before the council on Monday for the four-day hearing. A spokeswoman for the NMC said yesterday: ‘There are eight charges, all relating to failing to listen to the patient and giving unnecessary intervention’† (The Journal, 2005). This story is particularly relevant to the case of Mary, as she has difficulty in communicating due to her limited speech. As a nurse attending the ailing Mary, I would be eager to find out why she is tearful most of the time and showing signs of depression. To some degree, the chronic and early decline of her health is a contributing factor behind this. But Mary is only 34 years of age and she might not be mentally prepared for her bearing this burden. What she needs at this stage is not just nutritional inputs but also spiritual ones. Using the services of a psychological counsellor is an option that I would definitely use, for when Mary comes out of her Depression, her appetite for food will also return to normal. In addition to availing the services of a professional psychologist, I would also apply basic psychotherapeutic principles that are inculcated in every nurse. Hence, the scope of services that a nurse can offer is very wide ranging. Helen Keleher makes some valid observations in the introduction to her book titled Community Nursing Practice: Theory, Skills and Issues, where she states â€Å"Understanding the social basis of health is essential for effective nursing practice in the community because health is much more complex than merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The philosophy of community nursing embraces and promotes the social model of health, which provides a framework for community practice. The social foundations of health include the social context in which people live, work and play, as well as a wide range of social, economic, cultural, environmental and political factors that influence the health of every person and population group. Collectively these are known as the determinants of health† (Keleher, 2007) The case of Mary should also be approached from the aforementioned perspective. As a nursing professional, I am expected to go beyond the text book rules and guidelines. I would try to understand the determinants of Mary’s health before arriving at concrete solutions for her. Many of the health determinants are not easy to quantify, for they are subjective assessments (Jones Symon, 2000). As a result, the process I adopt to gather Mary’s health determinants should go beyond merely pedagogic ones to include subjective and intuitive assessments. The Environment of Care advice sheet is useful here, as it lays out precautions and actions to be taken in contingency situations. As Mary has shown signs of depression, it is not far fetched to think that she may think of suicide. It is a moot point that she has limited mobility, which would thwart any attempts at suicide. The likely issue is not so much the probability of suicide as the very thought of it. I will have to make sure that the environment in which Mary lives is free of dangerous objects. If Mary is be to cared at her home and not at the controlled environment of a hospital, then the task of making the surroundings safe becomes more challenging. As the detailed document pertaining to environment of care states,

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buy custom The Sport Company in the United States essay According to Marina (2008) Nike Inc. is the leading supplier of athletic shoes and equipments, as well as a key producer of sports equipment in the world. The company is based in the United States, and its headquarter is in Beaverton, Oregon. A majority of people are familiar with the various products offered by Nike store line, for instance, NIKE Football, Nike Sportswear, Nike Volleyball etc. It is from the sale of these products, coupled with the companys slogan, Just Do It that, Nike was able to get a profit of $15 billion, in the year 2006 (Peters 2009). As at 2008, the companys revenue was over US$ 18.6 billion, and indication of its business success. It has also employed in excess of 30,000 workers globally. However, over the past few years, Nike has been faced with a series of problems, which has negatively affected the business image, and consequently, its performance. Some of the issues of concern include paying low wages to its workers, using child labor, and the effect of outsourcing on its sales. As expected, such grave claims are bound to affect the successful establishment of any business both locally and internationally, and Nike is not an exception (Madeley 1999). For instance, Nikes sweatshops labor case resulted in numerous controversial debates concerning its ethical business practices. That painted a bad image of the company in the publics eye; something that Nike is still struggling to overcome among Americans and other customers worldwide, even if it has tried to recover from the bad press it received. The following in-depth analysis into the various challenges that Nike Inc. has faced in the recent past, gives a better definition of its problems. Problem Definition Nikes problems started, when it decided to outsource its manufacturing plants to numerous countries, with an intention of lessening costs, and improving its efficiency in productivity. What followed was widespread protests and outrage, far much beyond the expectation of the company. The protesters stereotyped the company as, forcing, children to slave away in hazardous conditions for below-subsistence wages (Hill 2009, p. 57). The factories forced their workers to work, extremely long hours to fill the quotas. In addition, they had to follow stringent rules throughout the working hours, while being paid minimally, despite the fact that 77% of employees in Nike Vietnam had respiratory problems (Sun 2010). Consequently, human rights and globalization activists criticized the company, for exploiting workers abroad, and placing them under very poor working conditions. What angered them most was the fact that Nike was cashing in billions of dollars, but still failed to provide a safe envi ronment for its workers. It was the complaints against globalization, and the numerous protests against poor working conditions that made the company realize the importance of providing a safe working environment to its employees, as well as, adhering to specific standards for every one of its factories abroad. The key challenges that Nike had to confront include ethical, cultural and legal challenges. It is a good thing that the company has provided numerous jobs to people across the world. However, that does not justify its maltreatment of its workers. For instance, while an average daily living wage in Vietnam in about $3, Nike Vietnam was paying only $ 1.60 daily to its workers (Hill 2009). This problem could have been avoided by the company paying each and every one of its employees the living wage that corresponds to the pay in their home countries, in order to be able to at least afford basic items. Besides, decent living wage is a cultural expectation, and since the company failed to meet it, people protested. Another challenge that the company had to face was the issue of unsafe working conditions. Nike hired, an accounting firm, Ernst Young to carry out an audit of its business practices. The audit report discovered that employees with breathing and skin problems had been left to continue working in departments with chemicals despite their conditions Fass (2010). This was in addition to a claim that over half of those workers who worked in departments dealing with chemicals were not provided with protective clothing such as masks and gloves. The findings of the report were meant to be confidential, but somehow, they reached the public, which triggered a lot of rage and anger from all corners of the world. While it continued to make even higher profits, it exploited its very own workers that enabled them to succeed. Nikes problems were not far from over; it was again accused of failing to adhere to child labor laws. The company hired children, and forced then to work for long hours while paying them wages below the required minimum pay. For instance, according to Global Exchange, one factory, owned by a Korean subcontractor for Nike, was hiring children as young as thirteen years, and forcing then to work for up to seventeen hours daily under enforced silence, while being paid only 10 cents per hour (Sage 2008). Exposure of workers to harsh and toxic chemicals such as carcinogens also placed the company at odds with human rights activists. In an attempt to redeem its badly tainted image, the company stated that it had formulated an action plan for dealing with the various problems indicated in the report, and that, it had improved safety and ventilation, reduced overtime hours, and lessened the use of toxic chemicals. Attempts of redeeming the bad image of the company saw, Nike again hiring Andrew Young, a one-time U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and the Ex- Mayor of Atlanta, and Congressional representative. His responsibility was to evaluate the working conditions in the various Nokias subcontractor plants around the world. Unfortunately, his report was accused of having discrepancies, in addition to the questionable method in which the research was conducted (Hill 2009). The idea of audits done on oversees factories by independent auitors came from United Students Against Sweatshops, in an attempt to obtain an accurate independent audit. But it seems that even independent auditors, did not deliver accurate results. Despite numerous attempts as discussed above, Nike still remains the focus of protests with regard to unsafe working conditions and child labor laws. In addition, the widely recognized brand name of the company has seen a number of governmental organizations working with it to make sure that it provides safe and ethical business practices, as well as to monitor, its sweatshops established in foreign countries (Rutenberg 2002). The several challenges that the brand is facing shows just how important it is for companies to follow the rules and regulations established by a particular country in order to successfully do its business there. It is based on the above challenges that I realized that Nike would benefit from a marketing research. Despite the fact that the companys brand is well known in the whole world, it is true that if it does not act fast to deal with the above problems, the business might eventually go down due to more and more people distancing themselves from the company (Egan 1998). As at 2007, retailers of Nike products both small and large reported that a significant number of their customers did not want anything to do with the brand due to allegations on the company, over worker exploitations overseas. As a result, their sales dropped considerably, affecting the overall performance of the company. This research was aimed at assessing the companies working conditions, and what measures the company should take to improve the working conditions for its workers in order to redeem its tainted image and reclaim the success it used to have in the previous years. The objectives of the research was as follows Objectives To evaluate the working conditions of Nike Vietnam factory. To find out what measures Nike Vietnam should take to provide better working conditions for its workers. Research Method and Limitations In order to find answers to the above questions, a research was carried out among selected employees of the company, to get their own version of the claims and what they would like to be done to improve the situations. The choice of the Nikes employees was based on the fact that they are the ones affected by the poor working conditions, and therefore their input is very important when the company is making critical decisions that concern them. The research sample was 500 randomly selected employees of Nike Vietnam, since it is one of the companys overseas factories where poor working conditions have been reported to a great extent. The research method involved an intercept survey, where questionnaires were constructed with the questions; 1) under what working conditions do you work? 2) What would you like to be done to improve the working conditions? To get answers to the above questions, I had to conduct a brief interview on the employees of the Nikes factory in Vietnam. The good thing is that I stay in Vietnam, and therefore, I did not have to incur travelling expenses, as in the case when the company to be researched is located far way. As expected, gaining entry into the company to interview the employees was not easy. First, even seeing the CEO of the factory, was a problem; I went to the company for almost one week, always finding him busy, either with meetings or appointments. The following week, when I finally gained access to his office, I had to explain to the CEO my reasons of wanting to interview their employees, and how my research would benefit his company. I told him of my concern for the numerous challenges that Nike Company has been facing in the recent past, and that I was their loyal customer and would not want to see the company being closed someday because it did not act appropriately in time to find lasting solutions to its numerous problems. I also told him of the importance of considering the input of their workers, who are the ones affected by the poor company working conditions, and that no research done in the recent past has targeted the suggestions of the workers. Though he was reluctant to give me permission to interview his employees, he finally agreed, realizing that its his company that would benefit from the findings of my research to a large extent. The next thing was to swing into full action of carrying out the interview. Since my target was to interview 500 (250 men and 250 women) workers, my strategy was to interview twenty workers daily for the next twenty-five days, a request that the management agreed with so long as it did not interfere with normal work. To avoid creating curiosity among workers wanting to know what is going own, the management gave me one of the offices, where I interviewed the workers, each one at a time, and filling their answers in the questionnaires I had constructed. I must say that the workers were very cooperative and welcoming, which made me realize that my research was not only important to me and their company, but to them as well. All in all, the interviews went well, and after twenty-five days, I had interviewed all the 500 employees I had targeted. Though the process was tiring because I was alone, the course was worth it. A major limitation of this research was the fact that the research sample size I used was small. Since poor working condition claims of Nike Inc. does not only affect its factory in Vietnam, but also its other oversees companies in other parts of the world, the opinions of 500 hundred people cannot satisfactorily represent the opinions of the rest of the workers. Being alone, I could not have managed to interview more employees, owing to the limited time I was given by the company. In addition, the research findings needed to be thoroughly analyzed using appropriate statistical tools in order to come uup with conclusive suggestions that would help the company to redeem its bad image on the publics eye. However, since I did not have the relevant statistical packages, my analysis was limited. Research Findings The 2007 US financial crisis affected many countries all over the world, and Vietnam was not an exception. 50% of the workers interviewed stated that the company was paying them very low wages. The workers said that the low wages paid to them barely met their basic needs; leave alone other responsibilities such as paying school fees for their children, as well taking care of medical expenses. 25% of the workers said that the hours that they had to endure everyday, with minimum pay was taking a toll on the lives. They said that they are forced to work long overtime hours without pay. That consequently, took a toll on their personal lives, as many of them had broken marriages, as their spouses accused them of neglect. The worst part of it is that, their pay is insignificant, and does not justify the long working hours. Out of those who cited long working hours as their major problem, 15 percent of them were living as single parents; due to being left by their spouses, on the basis of t heir long absence in their homes, while another 10% said that the long hours of work over the years have led to them developing various health complications. For instance, one man said that he was suffering from insomnia, while the other had developed pneumonia, due to working for long hours in the cold. Another fifteen percent of the workers interviewed said that their health was the most important thing to them and their major concern was handling toxic chemicals without the company giving them protecting clothing. A large percentage of those who had issues with the lack of protective clothing had either genetic health problems, or conditions they had acquired as a result of long exposure to toxic chemicals. The remaining 10 percent of the workers cited low wages, lack of protective clothing and long hours of work. They wished that the company could do something to generally improve the working conditions of the workers. In answering the question of what measures the company should take to improve its working conditions, 60% of the interviewed workers suggested, that the company should pay them better enumerations, and reduce the total number of working hours from the current 15 hours to the normal 8 hours, and that working overtime should be optional. Another 10% of the interviewees were in support of better pay, but they did not want the overtime hours to be reduced. Instead, they wanted their overtime payment to be guaranteed, citing that they had so many needs to take care of and that, so long as their overtime hours were paid, they were willing to continue working long hours to be able to get more money. 10% said that the company should provide protective clothing for everybody in the company, since only half of them had been provided with the protective wears. In addition, they said that the protective clothing they had currently were old and worn out and therefore needed replacements. The also , wanted the company to include them in the decision making process of the company. The said that the factory does not consult them on anything; that their duty is to work without questioning, an action they said had really demoralized them. Besides, they also supported better pay and access to better medical services within the company. One of the interviewees said that the company had a nurse that offered only painkillers irrespective of the disease that the workers, and that most of the times, they were denied permission to seek treatment outside the company. In fact he said that there is a female worker who died in the company who was suffering from heart attack, who died in the company some time back, because of being denied permission to see go to a proper hospital for medical checkup. Another 15% wanted the company to pay better, reduce the long working hours, provide protective clothing and also provide them with meals at work (breakfast and lunch). The remaining 5% of the i nterviewed workers suggested the already mentioned points above, in addition to being allowed by the company to join workers union, being allowed to go on paid leaves, being provided with staff training and development programs, to sharpen their skills and knowledge. From the above findings is evident that the earlier researchers that have reported poor working conditions did not lie; it is real and happening. The results of this research are believable because, it came from the workers themselves. There is one thing that is worth noting about these findings; despite the fact that the research was done in small scale with only a few people only, it unraveled new measures which Nike has not considered in its plan of redeeming its image. Such measures include, seeking the input of workers in decision making, worker training and development, and allowing workers to join workers unions. Even other measures such as increasing the pay of workers, and reducing overtime working hours which the company ha promised to implement have just been theoretical; the company has not fully implemented them. Conclusions and Recommendations The famous brand name of Nike, risks diminishing in the coming years, if the company continues with its current poor working practices of paying low wages to its workers, long working hours and failure to provide protective clothing to its employees. The company should realize the value of its workers, and start treating them with respect as human beings, and not working tools. It is also important for the management of Nike Vietnam, to realize that public image is very important; how the public views a company greatly determines whether it will succeed or fail, and therefore they should do everything possible to redeem their bad public image (Brettman 2011). I recommend that the CEO of the company and his management team should take the above suggestions by their workers seriously and implementing them to the letter, as a first step towards redeeming their image. Buy custom The Sport Company in the United States essay