New nursing code: Patients asked to help shape draft

Patients and the public are being urged to have their say over what standards nurses and midwives should abide by.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is drafting a new version of its code, which sets out standards of conduct, performance and ethics.

It will say patients should be treated with kindness, consideration and respect.

The NMC decided to revise the existing code partly because of events such as the scandal at Stafford Hospital.

There, patients were found to have died needlessly.

One of the criticisms made of the failings in care there was a lack of compassion from some nursing staff.

The Francis report made 290 recommendations to prevent "another Stafford" including a pilot for nurses to spend time working as support workers and healthcare assistants before taking their degrees.

The draft code covers areas such as care, communication, teamwork, professionalism and complaints handling.

The NMC regulates the UK's 670,000 nurses and midwives. Nurses have to be registered with the NMC to practice - and they have to abide by the code.

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