Don’t go too wild at freshers week, student nurses and midwives warned

As thousands of eager freshers pour into universities this week, we are urging student nurses and midwives to have fun but avoid anything that might have an impact on their future careers.

We launched our new guidance on 1 October 2009, encouraging nursing and midwifery students to balance a good social life with a responsible attitude and reminding them that serious errors of judgment could leave them unable to join their chosen profession.

The NMC does not directly regulate students, but the guidance will be used by fitness to practise panels at universities when deciding whether students who have been reported for misconduct should be allowed to continue training and, eventually, to join our register.

Guidance on professional conduct for nursing and midwifery students [PDF]
This guidance replaces An NMC guide for students of nursing and midwifery (NMC 2005)
Published: September 2009

A lot more responsibility
Midwifery adviser Carmel Lloyd, who drafted the new guidance, said: “We want student nurses and midwives enjoy themselves but they need to remember that they do have a lot more responsibility than many other people heading off to university. Not only will they find themselves treating patients in the near future, they also need to take care to uphold the reputation of the profession in their personal lives as well.”

The new publication, Guidance on professional conduct for nursing and midwifery student, covers key areas such as

• confidentiality
• dignity of patients
• alcohol consumption
• teamwork
• maintaining appropriate sexual boundaries

There is also an accompanying student magazine which provides practical advice for students about how to manage potential pitfalls such as social networking and work-life balance.

Work-life balancing act
Carmel added: “These students are very dedicated but they can face a tricky balancing act when it comes to combining a fun social life with the responsibility of caring for patients and vulnerable people. We want to help them understand that seemingly innocent activities, like taking a mobile phone snapshot of a friend working on a ward or letting off steam about a tricky patient on Facebook, could actually cost them their future career.”

Amanda Waring speaking at the student guidance launch event

Caring for real people
The guidance was launched at a special conference event in Liverpool attended by over 350 students, academics and mentors.

Actress Amanda Waring spoke to the students about dignity in care, reminding them to focus on the person in their care, not just their condition.

She said: “Nursing and midwifery are two extremely admirable professions which come with a huge amount of responsibility. It’s vital that enthusiastic students don’t lose sight of the fact that they will be caring for real people, who should be treated with the kind of respect that they would wish for themselves or their own family. The new guidance will help students stay mindful of the need to behave in a polite, kind and caring manner towards all of their patients.”

Further information
Guidance for students