the overriding purpose of statutory regulation is service to and protection of the
public, the regulatory system should be designed to satisfy this intent in a com-
prehensive manner'. The text explores the implications this has for individual
practitioners, for the settings in which they work and for the process of setting and
reviewing standards for education and practice.
The third principle is concerned with definitions of professional scope and
accountability. The supportive text includes this statement:
`ICN's clear preference, and therefore its strong recommendation, is that legis-
lation adopt a flexible approach toscope of practiceissues. ICN recognises and
accepts that benefits in service delivery can result from overlapping scopes of
practice among different health professions and that a dynamic approach to
professional practice will enable greater public service.'The full set of principles and the supplementary text reward study, but for the
purposes of this chapter I restrict myself to referring to just one more.
Principle V states that:
`Regulatory systems should recognise and incorporate the legitimate roles and
responsibilities of interested parties ± public, profession and its members,
employers and other professions ± in various aspects of standard-setting and
administration.'The role of each of these parties, and the way in which they can come together to
form the whole, is then explored in a passage of text too long to reproduce. I select
afew passages only.
The section concerning the role of the professions contends that:
`. .. the profession, through its culture and ethic and its regulatory mechanisms,
must promote the personal growth of its individual members. It must promote
vigorously that component of professional regulation that the individual prac-
titioner imposes on himself or herself as a matter of personal professional
accountability.'In respect of related professions it contends that:
`Related professions have the right to participate in nursing's external
governance processes to promote complementarity of the professions in the
public interest.'But also the contention that `The nursing profession should expect reciprocal
arrangements to exist'.
On the subject of the role the public could play, the document states that:
`Members of the public ... should be encouraged to participate in the regulatory
processes. This helps to increase the visibility of the profession's collective
accountability for its practice.'40 Nursing Law and Ethics