Guidance For The Care Of Older People Flying Off The Shelves

Main Category: Seniors / Aging
Also Included In: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 31 Aug 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) has received requests for over 200,000 copies of its documents, Guidance for the care of older people and Care and respect everytime.

The documents were produced to help nurses and the public improve standards of care for older people but the principles apply equally to anyone who receives care from a healthcare professional.

NMC project lead Ruth Chauhan says these documents bring nursing care back to the fundamental principles of the person, the process and the place and there is never any excuse for giving poor care.

Ruth adds:

"Nurses and midwives have a responsibility within their code to make the care of the person their first concern and to identify and raise any issues which may be putting people at risk.

"The fact that we've received such a high number of requests shows there is an appetite among healthcare professionals and the public to make sure the standards we set are being met in practice.

"I don't believe that nurses set out to give poor care but we know it does happen. What we are telling people is to work with their nurses to make sure that care is being delivered in the most appropriate way for them and to tell someone if it isn't. Referring a nurse to the NMC is an option but we would recommend trying to resolve any concerns about care at the local level first."

Both documents were developed around what older people, one of several key stakeholder groups involved in the work, told us about how they wanted to be cared for. The Guidance informs nurses and midwives about the level of care they should be providing. Care and respect everytime informs the public about what they should reasonably expect and what to do if they aren't being cared for in this way.

Guidance for the care of older people and Care and respect everytime are free of charge and can be obtained via our website http://www.nmc-uk.org or by calling the NMC on 020 7333 9333.

Notes

A weekly schedule of NMC fitness to practice hearings is available on the Fitness to Practise page.

Source
Nursing and Midwifery Council

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