Optical Registration Board Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Dispensing Opticians Bye-Law 2015.

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Year: 2015
• Citation: IR SI 453/2015

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 23rd October, 2015.

The Optical Registration Board, in exercise of the powers conferred in it by section 31 of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (as amended), with the approval of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council, hereby makes the following bye-law:

1. This bye-law may be cited as the Optical Registration Board Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Dispensing Opticians Bye-Law 2015.

2. The Optical Registration Board hereby adopts the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Dispensing Opticians (the “Code”) contained in the schedule to this bye-law.

3. The Code is hereby incorporated by reference into, and forms part of, this bye-law.

4. This bye-law comes into operation on 31 October 2015.

SCHEDULE

Optical Registration Board

Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Dispensing Opticians

Contents

Foreword .............. 5

About the Code .............. 6

Conduct .............. 8

Performance .............. 11

Ethics .............. 16

Appendix A: Suggested procedure for ethical decision-making .............. 19

Bibliography .............. 20

Foreword

The Optical Registration Board (ORB) is pleased to present the new Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Dispensing Opticians.

Whilst the profession is currently regulated, the new standards developed under CORU are designed to further promote and develop the highest standards of patient care and facilitate the registrants’ understanding of what is expected of them as a professional.

The Health and Social Care Professionals Council at CORU has developed a framework code detailing common standards across its constituent boards. The ORB has carefully built on this framework with the assistance of external experts so that the Code reflects the needs of patients and the standards they can expect when dealing with dispensing opticians.

The Code sets out the standards of ethics, conduct and performance expected of registrants. It is a principles based document, not a complete clinical and technical guideline.

Dispensing opticians have a duty to work in a safe manner according to a high standard of professional education, continuing training and competence. CORU will act as a fair and effective regulator to make sure that public confidence and protection is secured. It is the duty of all registrants to understand and comply with their Code, as failure to meet the standards could lead to the registrant dealing with a Fitness to Practise complaint.

As the profession continues to evolve the ORB will review these standards and develop as required.

Peter Mc Grath

Chairperson

Optical Registration Board

October 2015

About the Code

As a registrant you must comply with this Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. It is recognised that ethical decision-making presents challenges and it is suggested that the procedure at Appendix A should be consulted.

Registrants must be aware that a breach or breaches of this Code could be held to be professional misconduct and could result in a disciplinary sanction being imposed following a fitness to practise inquiry.

In this document:

• ‘you must’ is used as an overriding principle or duty;

• ‘you should’ is used where the principle or duty may not apply in all cases or where there are factors outside your control affecting your ability to comply;

• the term “patients” includes service users, patients, clients and anyone else who uses your service.

Below is a summary of your responsibilities as a registrant grouped into three categories: conduct, performance and ethics.

Conduct

1. Act in the best interests of patients.

2. Respect the confidentiality of patients.

3. Maintain high standards of personal conduct.

4. Provide information about conduct and competence.

Performance

5. Address health issues related to your fitness to practise.

6. Obey laws and regulations.

7. Act within the limits of your knowledge, skills, competence and experience.

8. Keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date.

9. Get informed consent from patients.

10. Communicate with patients, carers and other professionals.

11. Assist and advise colleagues, recently qualified registrants and students.

12. Teach, supervise and assess students and other professionals.

13. Supervise tasks that you give to others.

14. Keep accurate records.

15. Address health and safety risks.

16. Address risks to patients.

Ethics

17. Demonstrate ethical awareness.

18. Respect the rights and dignity of people.

19. Carry out your duties in a professional and ethical way.

20. Undertake research in an ethical manner.

21. Make sure that any advertising is truthful, accurate and lawful.

Conduct

You must always keep a high standard of conduct. Your duties are to:

1. Act in the best interests of patients

You are responsible for acting in the best interests of your patient.

You must:

a. make the care of the patient your first and continuing concern;

b. treat patients as individuals;

c. respect diversity, different cultures and values;

d. respect and, where appropriate, speak out on behalf of patients and carers;

e. support the patient’s right to take part in all aspects of the service provided and to make informed choices about the service they receive;

f. do nothing and allow nothing to be done that might put the health or safety of a patient at risk;

g. when working in a team, be responsible for:

• your own professional conduct,

• any service or professional advice you give,

• your own failure to act,

• any appropriate tasks you delegate, and

• any tasks delegated to you;

h. protect patients if you believe they are threatened by a colleague’s conduct, performance or health. Patient safety must always come before personal and professional loyalties;

i. talk to a suitable professional colleague if you become aware of any situation that puts a patient at risk;

j. provide full and accurate fee and product information to the patient or potential patient in advance of agreeing to provide your service.

You must not:

a. for reasons of personal or commercial benefit, direct public patients to private practice;

b. accept inducements, payment, gifts or benefits that could be reasonably perceived as affecting your professional judgement.

2. Respect the confidentiality of patients

You must:

a. treat information about patients as confidential and use it only for the purpose for which it was given;

b. check that people who ask for information are entitled to it;

c. always follow ‘best practice’, Practice Guidelines and data protection laws when handling confidential patient information. Stay up to date with best practice developments.

You must not:

give personal or confidential patient information to anyone, except if the law or your professional practice obligations requires you to do so.

You must be aware confidentiality is not absolute. You must familiarise yourself with the circumstances in which a breach of confidentiality is appropriate and justifiable.

Disclosure of information to colleagues:

If you need to share patient information with a relevant colleague to give safe and effective care, you must make sure that they know that the information must be kept confidential.

3. Maintain high standards of personal conduct

You must:

a. work openly and co-operatively with other healthcare and social care professionals;

b. respect the roles and expertise of other health and social care professionals and work in partnership with them;

c. use social media and social networking in a responsible way, in particular, to avoid any breach of your obligations in this Code such as confidentiality under clause 2 and use of records and information under clause 14.

You must not:

a. harm, abuse or neglect patients, carers or colleagues;

b. exploit or discriminate against patients, carers or colleagues in any way;

c. form inappropriate personal relationships with patients;

d. condone discrimination by patients, carers or colleagues;

e. put yourself or others at unnecessary risk;

f. behave in a way that would call into question your suitability to work in health and social care professional services;

g. engage in conduct that is likely to damage the public’s confidence in you or in your profession.

4. Provide information about conduct and competence

You must:

a. inform the Optical Registration Board if you have been convicted of a criminal offence (other than a ‘fixed charge’ driving offence under the Road Traffic Acts). You must also inform the Board if you have been given an ‘adult caution’ by An Garda Síochána or a caution from the police in another country;

b. inform the Optical Registration Board if your employer or another body has suspended you or placed restrictions on your practice because of concerns about your conduct or competence. You must co-operate with any investigations or formal inquiry into your professional conduct;

c. report, to the appropriate authority, any...