Nursing and Midwifery Council

From Ganfyd

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has a similar role in the UK, for nurses and midwifes, to that of the General Medical Council for medical practitioners. Their Code^[1] appears to be similar to the GMC's Good Medical Practice - although it does not appear to proscribe undermining the actions of another professional in the same way that Good Medical Practice does.

History of UK Nursing regulation

With the setting up of the General Medical Council (GMC) in 1858 people began to think of a similar organisation for nursing, particularly when organised training began in the 1880s^[2]. No agreement was reached till 1902 when the Midwives Registration Act was passed.

Full nursing regulation did not come till after the First World War and then partly as a result of the friction between qualified nurses and VADs. The Voluntary Aid Detatchments ^[3] were volunteers who went to local hospitals and eventually the front with brief training. They were set up by the British Red Cross and the order of St John of Jerusalem with a uniform similar to a nurses but for a red Cross on the bib ^[4]. Agatha Christie was once a VAD.

A private Member's Bill of 1916 was passed in 1919 and General Nursing Councils were set up in Scotland, Ireland and England&Wales. These were replaced in 1979 by the the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) This council was itself repaced by the NMC in 2002

References