Part four: Health professions

During students’ clinical placements, the nurse shall ensure that the prior consent of the patient is obtained for the examination or care provided by or in the presence of the student. The student receiving such instruction must be informed beforehand by the nurse of the need to respect the rights of patients and the duties of nurses as set out in this Code of Ethics.

When using their experience or documents for teaching or scientific publication, nurses ensure that it is not possible to identify individuals.

It is forbidden to practise nursing under a pseudonym. A nurse who uses a pseudonym for activities relating to his or her profession must declare this to the Conseil Départemental de l’Ordre. Professionals acting in a private capacity under cover of a pseudonym are prohibited, regardless of the means of communication used, from claiming to be professionals without disclosing their identity.

Nurses who have links with companies and establishments producing or exploiting health products or with advisory bodies working on these products are obliged to make these links known to the public when they speak at a public event, university teaching or continuing education or therapeutic education activity, in the written or audiovisual press or via any written or online publication.

Nurses are prohibited from receiving benefits in kind or in cash, in any form whatsoever, directly or indirectly, from companies providing services or producing or marketing products covered by compulsory social security schemes. However, the exceptions provided for in articles L. 1453-6 and L. 1453-7 apply to nurses.

Nurses shall ensure, in particular when participating as an expert in a body, group or other commission organised by the public authority, that they declare any interests which may call into question their impartiality and independence, or which may affect the quality of their expertise or judgement. He shall comply with the procedures organised for this purpose by the public authority.

Nurses must not use their professional position to try to obtain for themselves or for others an unjustified advantage or profit or to commit an act contrary to probity.

Nurses may not engage in any other activity, apart from care, prevention, health education, training, research or expert appraisal, which enables them to take advantage of the skills conferred on them by the regulations. They may only engage in another professional activity if such combination is compatible with the dignity and quality required by their professional practice and is not excluded by the regulations in force.

Nurses must indicate on their prescription forms and other professional documents : 1° Their surname, forenames, professional postal and electronic address, telephone number and identification number in the shared directory of professionals working in the healthcare system or, failing that, their ordinal number ; 2° If practising in an association or partnership, the names of the partners and an indication of the type of partnership; 3° His status with regard…

The nurse must not accept a mission of expertise in which his own interests are at stake, or those of one of his patients, one of his relatives, one of his friends or a group which usually calls upon his services, or if his independence is affected in any way whatsoever. No one may be both expert nurse and treating nurse for the same patient. When entrusted with a mission,…