Professional behaviour: professional indemnity insurance.

As registered nurses, we are aware that we must behave in a 'professional' way. We know that we must achieve certain standards of behaviour and that our conduct as registered nurses is constrained by regulation. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have the statutory power to decide how we must act and how we must not. Certain types of behaviour can and will attract sanctions from the NMC professional committees. Registered nurses are removed from the register in ever-increasing numbers, and one of the reasons given by the professional committees for a removal from the register, is that there was failure to act to protect patients by providing a safe environment. Examples of negligent behaviour include mis-administration of drugs, a failure to properly manage dietary needs or failures to protect the integrity of the person from pressure sores and damage to the skin.