The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the UK regulator for two professions, nursing and midwifery. The primary purpose of the NMC is protection of the public. It does this through maintaining a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses eligible to practise within the UK and by setting standards for their education, training and conduct. Practitioners renew their registration every three years and there are currently around 660,000 practitioners registered with the NMC.

 

The following is the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s response to the three questions which you have asked:

 

1.       What do you consider to be the highest priority in addressing malnutrition in an ageing population?

 

Nurses and older people themselves have to recognise that malnutrition is an issue.  Issues around malnutrition need to be discussed with older people routinely during any contact with nurses irrespective of where the older person is being cared for.

 

2.       What have you recently undertaken or valued to help improve food access or the nutrition of older people?

 

The NMC takes the issue of care of older people very seriously. Nurses and midwives already have the standards of conduct embodied in the NMC Code of Professional Conduct: standards for conduct, performance and ethics (2008). These standards provide the benchmark against which conduct and performance are measured.  The NMC has just published Guidance for Care of Older People which reflects the views of older people in what they expect from nurses who care for them.  The guidance supports nurses in delivering the type of care that older people have told us they expect to receive from a nurse.  It outlines how nurses can interpret their Code in the context of caring for older people.  Being treated with dignity and respect were the two main issues that older people said they expected and this included making sure that their nutritional needs were assessed and regularly and appropriately met 

 

3.       What are your future plans to address issues raised by the Summit?

 

The NMC believes that older people should be empowered to speak out when any aspect of their care, including having their nutritional needs met, is less than satisfactory.  For the first time the NMC has produced a leaflet specifically for the public which sets out clearly what an older person can expect when being cared for by a nurse in any setting.   This will be readily available on the NMC website www.nmc-uk.org  or by ringing the advice line on 0207 333 9333.

 

Nurses will be encouraged to use the leaflet to work in partnership with older people and the people who are important to them to ensure that every older person receives the care that is their right.  Older people, or those who represent them, will be encouraged to raise their concerns so that issues can be addressed and improvements made immediately.

 

I trust the Summit will achieve its aims and would welcome feedback from the discussions which take place and outcomes from the event.