Nurses play an important in providing preventative and curative patient care by developing plans of

care and working with an interdisciplinary team. In order to ensure the delivery of safe and competent

patient care it is very important to have rules and regulations for nurses. To maintain professional

standards of nursing practice, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council first adopted national

competency standard for registered nurses in early 1990s. These competency standards set

specifications that assess the performance of nurses to obtain or retain their qualification as a registered

nurse in Australia. Along with competency standards, code of ethics and code of professional conduct

plays an important role in maintaining professional standards of nursing. Nurse’s competence is

grounded upon nursing theory, scientific knowledge and is reflected in everyday practice. The intension

of this essay is to understand competency standards, code of ethics and code of professional conduct.

The aim of this essay is to describe on the subsection 3.4 Support and contributes to nursing and health

care research under domain critical thinking and analysis.

This section of the writing explains about the purpose and functions of National Competency Standards

for Nurses in Australia. First of all, National Competency Standards provide a basis for evaluating a

Nurse’s performance for obtaining or retaining registration as a registered nurse in Australia (Nursing

and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), 2006). Besides, Universities use these standards while

developing their curriculum with the intension of keeping nursing education in line with Competency

Standards (NMBA, 2006). O'Connell, Gardner & Coyer (2014) argues that the competency standards

provide a learning tool for Nurses. The Competency Standards give Nurses a professional status and

also help them to recognize their area of expertise (O'Connell, Gardner & Coyer, 2014). Likewise, The

National Board can apply the competency standards in order to communicate with the consumers

regarding the conduct that consumers expect from a registered Nurse (NMBA, 2006). In addition,

National competency standards develop nurse’s practice. Nursing competency standards not only

evaluate the skills and knowledge of registered nurses, it also encourages them to keep updated about

the latest advances in health care systems. All in all, National Competency Standards promote

standards of care, upholds the safe clinical practice and enhances patient outcomes (Chiarella, Thoms,

Lau & McInnes, 2008).

This section of the writing explains the relationship between the National Competency Standards, Code

of Ethics and The code of Professional Conduct. The code of professional conduct together with a code

of ethics and competency standards for registered nurses provides framework to oversee the behaviors

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of a nurse during everyday nursing practice so as to keep up the reputation of nursing profession

(NMBA, 2008). The registered nurse demonstrates competence as specified by registration

requirements (NMBA, 2006), they adhere to a code of ethics while taking any decision and ensure

every activity performed in the profession is within code of professional conduct. A nurse cannot meet

competency standards if they are not following code of ethic and professional conduct. It has been

clearly stated under ‘Professional Practice’ domain of a competency standard that the nurse must carry

out professional practice well within code of ethics and code of conduct. Similarly, in order to acquire

nursing competency a nurse must encourage safe clinical practice (NMBA, 2006) and ‘safety’ is given

concerning in code of ethics (NMBA, 2008) as well as a code of professional conduct (NMBA, 2008).

In the same way, it is expected of nurses that they identify appropriate action to be taken in specified

circumstances (NMBA, 2006), and their actions are always to be regulated by ethics and code of

professional conduct. Nursing competency isn’t achieved unless a nurse follows a code of ethics and

code professional conduct.

According to Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, there are four domains which are:

Professional Practice, critical thinking and analysis, provision and coordination of care and

collaborative and therapeutic practice. Among these domains, critical thinking and analysis play vital

role in delivery of safe and effective patient care. Registered Nurses can learn critical thinking in

nursing school also gain these skills through work experience. Critical thinking and analysis is one of

the important domains which focuses on the evidence based practice, analytical skills and quality

improvement activities. Under this domain, “Supports and contribute to nursing and health care

research” is one of the listed subsection. This subsection indicates the importance of nursing research.

It inspires the Nurses to conduct research by defining appropriate problems. Truly speaking, Critical

analysis and thinking plays key role in preparing professional and ethical Nurses (Chan, 2013). It is

very essential that nurses practice appropriate judgments and decision making. And critical analysis is

that professional quality which will help a nurse to make effective decisions in fast changing clinical

situations (Chen & Lin, 2003).

This part of the writing describes the significance of subsection 3.4 as stated in ‘National Competency

Standards for the Registered Nurse’ under the domain ‘Critical Thinking and Analysis’ (NMBA, 2006).

Nurses are expected to participate in nursing research and acquire the skills that are necessary to

practice as a registered nurse (Walker, 2012). In fact, nursing research has a tremendous influence on

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current and future professional nursing practice (Tingen, Burnett, Murchison & Zhu, 2009). Dougherty

(2010) has suggested that nursing research promotes evidence based practice and right understanding

of the research process is crucial to the development of evidence based practice skills. By appropriate

research a nurse can comprehend best evidence relative to the concerned clinical problem. Health care

services are developing day by day at an accelerating rate. This advancement is sure to bring

considerable progressions in the field of treatment and health care. In order to keep updated about

modern health care approaches and implement them in practice, nursing research is imperative (Tingen,

Burnett, Murchison & Zhu, 2009). Nursing research, when implemented practically, improves patient

care and enhance professional development (Dougherty, 2010). Research is conducted in different

stages interrelated to each other. Identification of research problem is the first and the most critical

phase of nursing research (Jones, 2014). The whole research can be conceived through the

understanding of the research problem (Jones, 2014). The research problem is important because a

carefully assessed research problem reveals a knowledge gap that has not been answered (Akhtar,

Bhatti, Ejaz & Raza, 2012). The objective of the research is directly based on the problem. The

problem definition provides the basis on which research is conducted. It directs the entire research

process; from preliminary research to end decision making. The significance of the end result depends

on the problem. If the research problem is strong, the result of the research can contribute to the larger

body of knowledge (Winsett & Cashion, 2007). This is why the research problem should take into

account the area of interest, information gaps, relevance to current nursing practices and everything that

is directly or indirectly related to it. If a problem is not specified correctly, the whole research process

is wasted despite how well the research is conducted. All in all, the contribution of nurses in nursing

and health care research uplifts everyday nursing practices.

In order to best meet the competency, nurses must procure a sense of professional obligation to

understand any clinical activity and should intend to seek out essential knowledge and skills to provide

professional service in an inventive manner (Vanaki and Memarian, 2009). A nurse should be active

and interested in developing, evaluating and implementing a research. The nurse must demonstrate

critical thinking as well as logical and safe decision making. It is necessary to look for the future

possibilities rather than sticking in the present circumstances. The nurse must have passion for

investigation. A nurse must be willing go after important issues that can make a difference. Then, the

issues are to be analyzed critically with a purpose to determine the topic of research. While deciding on

a topic it is essential to understand what has been already studied on the topic to attempt to make future

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development rather than repetition (Jones, 2014). Nurses must be responsible to their patients, which

possibly will motivate them to improve their knowledge and seek more knowledge to provide improved

care to the patient (Vanaki and Memarian, 2009). Concisely, love of the profession, commitment,

critical thinking and an eagerness for nursing knowledge and professional expertise are the factors that

significantly affect the attainment of competency regarding support and contribution in the field of

nursing and health care research (Vanaki and Memarian, 2009).

It is vital for nurses to cognize code of ethics, code of professional conduct and national competency

standards in order to conduct professional practice effectively. This writing aims to provide

fundamental knowledge regarding the code of ethics, code of professional conduct and national

competency standards to a nursing student. In this writing, the comprehensive study of competency

standards for registered nurses in Australia along with a code of ethics and code of professional conduct

was made. Their purpose was investigated. The relationship between them were explored. To conclude,

an insightful study of nursing competency standards, code of ethics and code of professional conduct

was done.

References

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