Unit 2: P4 P5. National Initiatives: promoting anti-discriminatory practice

Authors Avatar by rebeccahughes-allivecouk (student)

National Initiatives: promoting anti-discriminatory practice

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)

The NMC is a regulatory body for nurses and midwives, in order for them to be able to practise in the UK they must be registered with the NMC. This also requires them to meet standards and follow the code of conduct. The NMC promotes anti-discriminatory practice because if any nurse or midwife falls short of the code of conduct they are investigated by the council.
        The code of conduct was revised and improved recently to make it easier to understand and follow, making it more effective. The standards have pretty much stayed the same, however they have been summarised into four statements; prioritise people, practise effectively, preserve safety and promote professionalism and trust.
        Prioritise people means putting the care and safety of the patient first, they should be your main concern. This covers treating people with kindness, respect and compassion, delivering the basics of care effectively, avoiding making assumptions and recognising diversity and individual choice. Ensuring any treatment or assistance of care is delivered without delay and people’s human rights are upheld. This statement of the code of conduct and its standards promotes anti-discriminatory practice because upholding people’s human rights means challenging discriminatory practice when you see it, showing people kindness, respect and compassion and delivering high quality care doesn’t just apply to certain service users, it applies to all regardless of social class, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, culture, race, gender reassignment…etc.
        Practise effectively means being able to communicate with patients effectively, trying to break down language barriers where it is possible, using language and terms that your patients can understand and making sure they are understanding you. Using non-verbal language as well as verbal to have a better ability to communicate effectively with service users of different cultures. This promotes anti-discriminatory practice by welcoming and facilitating diversity. For example; an English speaking service user and a Polish speaking service user both have the same health problem. The Polish speaking service user shouldn’t have less access to healthcare than the English speaking service user just because of the language barrier, if it isn’t possible to communicate effectively with the Polish speaking service in order to understand his problem and provide the help he needs then steps need to be taken in order to not discriminate and lessen his equality of healthcare. A translator may be needed.
        Preserving safety means acting within your knowledge, skills and competency always, asking for assistance from qualified professionals where necessary and being aware of and taking the steps to reduce any potential for harm associated with your practice. This helps promote anti-discriminatory practice because harm to your practice could come from discriminatory practice happening and not being challenged. This links in with the last statement promoting professionalism and trust because that means upholding the reputation of your profession, and if you or your colleagues are engaging in discriminatory practice it brings the whole profession down. Being professional means keeping to the code of conduct and the standards set in it, being aware of how your behaviour affects others and how it influences them and keeping to the laws of the country which includes the Equality Act, Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act…etc.
           If for any reason a nurse or midwife acts against the code of conduct they are investigated. The NMC carrying out these investigations promotes anti-discriminatory practice because it challenges it when it does occur, and it shows that there is no place for it in either profession as engaging in anti-discriminatory practice can get you struck-off the register, preventing you from working as a nurse or midwife.

Join now!

Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)

The HCPC is a regulating body that regulates health, psychological and social work professionals. It regulates arts therapists, biomedical scientists, dietitians, hearing aid dispensers, paramedics, physiotherapists, psychologists, social workers and many more professions. Like the NMC the HCPC is set up to protect the public and has standards too, it also requires every profession it regulates to be registered before they can practise and it takes action against those that don’t meet the standards.
      The HCPC set standards for your character, your health, your proficiency, conduct, performance and ethics, continuing professional ...

This is a preview of the whole essay