S.I. No. 527/2014 - Occupational Therapists Registration Board Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics Bye-law 2014.

1. Identify the problem and gather as much information as you can. Ask yourself if it is an ethical, professional, clinical or legal problem.

2. Review the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics and identify the relevant parts. Check other professional guidelines too such as those of the Health Service Executive or government departments as well as any relevant legislation.

3. Discuss the issue with professional colleagues.

4. Consider asking your professional body for advice.

5. Evaluate the rights, responsibilities and welfare of everyone affected. Remember that your first obligation is to the service user.

6. Keep notes at each stage of the process.

7. Consider different solutions and decisions.

8. Evaluate and document the potential consequences of each option.

9. Choose the best solution or decision based on your professional judgement.

10. Put the solution or decision into practice, informing all the people affected.

11. Remember that you are responsible, as an autonomous practitioner, for the consequences of the solution or decision that you choose.

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GIVEN under the seal of the Occupational Therapists Registration Board,

25 November 2014.

CLODAGH NOLAN,

Chairperson, Occupational Therapists Registration Board.

and

GAYNOR BEYER,

Member, Occupational Therapists Registration Board.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the bye-law and does not purport to be a legal interpretation).

This bye-law adopts the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Occupational Therapists agreed by the Occupational Therapists Registration Board.

12. Teach, supervise and assess students and other professionals

If you are involved, you must

be willing to supervise, teach, train, appraise and assess students in your profession and do so fairly and respectfully using agreed criteria.

You should

meet your professional obligation to teach, train and mentor other health and social care professionals in specified practice areas.

13. Supervise tasks that you give to others

You must

a. acknowledge that service users have the right to assume that the person providing assessment, intervention or treatment to them has the knowledge, skills and competence to do so;

b. only delegate to a person who you believe to have the knowledge, skills and experience to carry out the task safely and effectively;

c. always continue to give adequate and appropriate supervision, if you delegate a task;

d. understand that you are accountable for any task you delegate to another practitioner and responsible for any task you delegate to a student or others;

e. understand that if a student or another practitioner is unwilling to carry out a task because they do not think they are capable of doing so safely and effectively, you must not force them to do so. If their refusal raises a disciplinary or training issue, you must deal with this separately. The service user must never be put at unnecessary risk.

You must not

ask anyone to do anything which is outside their knowledge, skills and experience unless they are supervised by an experienced practitioner.

14. Enhance the service user experience

You should

a. contribute to the development of your profession in a way that improves the service user experience;

b. be willing to work in collaboration with service users, professionals, support staff and others to optimise and enhance service user care.

15. Keep accurate records

You must

a. keep clear and accurate records in line with the policies and procedures set out in your workplace;

b. make sure that all records are

• complete,

• legible (if handwritten),

• identifiable as being made by you,

• dated and timed,

• prepared as soon as practicable following assessment, intervention or treatment, and

• clear and factual;

c. if you supervise students, review each student’s entries in the records and record that you have done so;

d. protect information in records against loss, damage or access by anyone who is not allowed to access them;

e. make sure that if records are updated, the information that was there before is not erased or made difficult to read;

f. hold and use records according to relevant legislation.

Records are all information collected, processed and held in manual, electronic or any format pertaining to the service user and service user care. Records include data (within the meaning of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003), demographics, clinical data, images, unique identification, investigation, samples, correspondence and communications relating to the service user and their care.

16. Address health and safety risks

You must

a. follow risk assessment policies and procedures to assess potential risks in the workplace and your areas of practice;

b. take any steps needed to minimise, reduce or eliminate the risks you identify;

c. inform colleagues and the authorities about the outcomes and implications of risk assessments;

d. read and understand your institution’s or department’s safety statement.

17. Be an advocate for service users

You should promote occupational justice in your practice by

a. advocating on behalf of service users to enable full occupational engagement and participation in everyday life;

b. informing the proper authorities of any concerns you have about service user safety and quality of service.

Ethics

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

18. Demonstrate ethical awareness

You must

a. make sure you read and understand this Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics;

b. if there is a conflict between this Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics and a registrant’s work environment, the registrant’s obligation is to the Code.

You must not

enter into any agreement or contract or accept any gift that might cause you to breach this Code.

You should

a. be aware of the wider need to use limited resources as efficiently and responsibly as is practicable. You have a duty to assist in the efficient and effective use of resources and to give advice on their appropriate allocation, whilst balancing your duty of care to the individual;

b. take particular care when ethical issues arise. (Please see Appendix A for a suggested procedure for ethical decision-making.)

19. Respect the rights, dignity and occupational identity of people

You must

a. always show, through your practice and conduct, respect for the rights and dignity of all individuals as identified under the Equal Status Act as updated from time to time, regardless of their

• gender,

• family status,

• civil status,

• age,

• disability,

• sexual orientation,

• religious beliefs,

• race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, or

• membership of the Traveller Community;

b. always respect the occupational identity of people (those roles, occupations and activities that people identify themselves as engaging in, in everyday life).

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

You must

a. carry out your duties and responsibilities in a professional and ethical way to protect the public;

b. always behave with integrity and honesty;

c. recognise that if there is a conflict of interest between the service user and the safeguarding of children or other vulnerable people, safeguarding should take precedence.

21. Undertake research in an ethical manner

You must

a. make sure that the welfare of each research participant is not adversely affected;

b. collect, protect and securely destroy data in line with relevant legislation;

c. obtain informed consent from research participants in line with the procedures laid down by the ethics committee.

You should

a. take part in research or support the research of others where possible;

b. submit research proposals to the relevant research ethics committees and get ethical approval before starting the research;

c. unless otherwise agreed with them, treat all information gathered confidentially and make sure that participants cannot be recognised through their data;

d. disseminate or circulate the research findings widely to further improve the evidence base of the profession and/or to improve service user assessment and treatment;

e. follow accepted guidelines concerning intellectual property, copyright and acknowledging the work of others in publishing and disseminating research;

f. make sure you do not distort or misuse clinical or research findings;

g. make sure that a service user’s refusal to take part in research does not influence the delivery of service to that service user in any way.

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

You should

a. make sure that any advertising is truthful, accurate and lawful;

b. provide full and accurate fee information to the service user or potential service user, in advance of agreeing to provide your service(

s

);

c. only advertise, promote or recommend a product or service that is based on your objective clinical reasoning of the service user’s needs.

Appendix A

Suggested procedure for ethical decision-making

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of

28

th November

, 2014.

The Occupational Therapists Registration Board, in exercise of the powers conferred on 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