This section is under development, updates coming soon.
This healthcare Delegation in Practice Governance Framework for Nurses and Midwives, aims to ensure that nurses and midwives work with colleagues and people drawing on care and support (and those close to them), to safely deliver health care in for people in Northern Ireland. The ultimate aim is to enable people to live well, within the most appropriate setting, with the Right Care, provided by the Right Person, at the Right Time, in the Right Place.
Accountability: You and the law
RCN: Accountability and Delegation. A Guide for the Nursing Team states:
Health service providers are accountable to both the criminal and civil courts to ensure that their activities conform to legal requirements. In addition, employees are accountable to their employer to follow their contract of duty.
Registered practitioners are also accountable to regulatory bodies in terms of standards of practice and patient care.
The law imposes a duty of care on practitioners, whether they are support workers, health care assistants (HCAs), assistant practitioners (APs), students, registered nurses, doctors or others, when it is “reasonably foreseeable” that they might cause harm to patients through their actions or their failure to act.
The duty of care applies whether they are performing straightforward activities such as supporting people to wash and dress or undertaking complex surgery. In each instance there is an opportunity for harm to occur. Once a duty of care applies, the key question to ask is: What standard of care is expected of practitioners performing particular roles?
All practitioners must ensure that they perform competently. They must also inform a senior member of staff when they are unable to perform competently.
