Part four: Health professions

When nurses become aware that a person with whom they are working is being abused, deprived, ill-treated or sexually assaulted, they must use the most appropriate means to protect that person, exercising caution and circumspection. In the case of a minor or a person who is unable to protect him/herself due to age, illness or physical or mental condition, nurses must alert the judicial, medical or administrative authorities, except in…

In all circumstances, nurses endeavour, through their professional action, to relieve patients’ suffering by means appropriate to their condition and provide moral support. Nurses have a duty, within the framework of their own skills and on medical prescription or as part of a therapeutic protocol, to provide care aimed at relieving pain.

Nurses have a duty to use all the means at their disposal to ensure that everyone lives with dignity until death. In particular, they have a duty to help patients whose condition so requires to have access to palliative care and support. It also endeavours, in the circumstances mentioned in the previous paragraphs, to support the patient’s family and friends.

Nurses must accompany the dying person until his or her last moments, ensure the quality of a life that is coming to an end through appropriate care and measures, safeguard the dignity of the person being cared for and comfort those around him or her. Nurses must not deliberately provoke death.

When participating in or promoting research involving the human person, particularly in the field of nursing care, nurses must comply with the provisions of Title II of Book I of Part One of this Code. The same applies to their participation in an organ procurement activity mentioned in Book II of the same part.

The practice of the nursing profession involves the drawing up by the professional, in accordance with the observations he is able to make, of certificates, attestations and documents the production of which is prescribed by legislative and regulatory texts. These documents must be written legibly in French, dated, enable the professional from whom they originate to be identified and be signed by him or her. The nurse may provide the…

It is forbidden to take any action that might give a patient an unjustified or unlawful material advantage, as well as any rebate in money or in kind.