Psychiatric training is designed to educate psychiatrists to the highest standards of competence in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of persons with mental disorders.
A defendant who is competent to stand trial is therefore also competent to plead guilty, waiving the full panoply of trial rights, but not necessarily competent enough to represent herself at trial in the face of a state procedural rule requiring a higher standard of competence for pro se representation.
"High standards of competence are necessary not only because of the importance and complexity of housing, but also because of the money involved," the report states.
The contract that the profession has with society and its patients is such that, in exchange for a significant degree of autonomy over education, licensing and credentialing, members of the profession are expected to maintain high standards of competence and moral responsibility and to subordinate financial gain to the higher values of responsibility to clients and the public interest [ 74, 75].
As such, in appointing and promoting staff members, GSSC will seek to secure the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity.
The need for nurses to exhibit a higher standard of clinical competence is a direct result of increased technology, new treatment regimes, and complex co-morbidity disease processes of patients.
