From the moment a nurse enters into professional practice she or he is bound by strict standards of professional conduct. The standards of conduct expected of professional nurses are stated publicly in a range of documents including formally endorsed professional codes of conduct, codes of ethics, competency standards, and guidelines and position statements formulated on a range of issues relevant to the profession and practice of nursing. For example, nurses in Australia are bound by the standards of conduct expressed in the following documents published by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC):

Note: These can be viewed at: http://www.anmc.org.au

Depending on the jurisdiction in which they are registered, nurses are also obliged to follow various guidelines set down by their local nurse registering authority. For example, nurses working in the Australian states of New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS), Victoria (VIC) and Western Australia (WA), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT) are bound respectively by the various standards, policies and guidelines prescribed by those authorities (see Box 1.1).