NMC Working With Disability Rights Commission, UK

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 12 Sep 2007 - 13:00 PDT

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NMC Chief Executive Sarah Thewlis was recently invited to comment on the report by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC). The report Maintaining Standards, Promoting Equality: Professional regulation and disabled people's access to careers in nursing, teaching and social work, is a summary of the DRC's investigation into requirements for 'good health' in teaching, social work and nursing. It will be available from 14 September 2007.

The NMC responded to the report with the following -

"We have a statutory duty as a regulator to protect the public by ensuring that anyone coming onto our register is fit to practise safely. Nurses and midwives declare that they are of good health and good character through self-assessment and employers have a responsibility to provide 'reasonable adjustments' for anyone who needs them.

However, we recognise that the issue of good health is complicated and not easy to define. Further development of our guidelines for education providers and employers is a big piece of work for us, and not something that we will be doing in isolation. We have had been in discussions with the Disability Rights Commission and welcome the report that has been released as it reflects the other work we are doing around diversity. Although the issues raised were not exclusive to the NMC as all healthcare regulators are facing similar challenges in this area, but we are committed in our promise to deliver standards and guidance that strike an effective balance between protecting the public and supporting the professional development of nurses and midwives."

http://www.nmc-uk.org