An examination of the disclosure of the names of providers who have breached the Code of the Health and Disability Services Consumer Rights, with a discussion of the consultation review report and case 06HDC15791.
For this assessment all names have been removed or altered to protect the individuals involved which is in accordance with the Privacy Act 1993 (Parliamentary Counsel Office [PCO], 2009). Privacy is a vital ethical issue and legal requirement, concerned with not just the keeping of ‘secrets’ but it is the foundation of respect (Polit & Beck, 2005).
Diesfeld & Godbold, (2009) suggests that the New Zealand disciplinary process is a form of preventative law for patients and health care providers. Therefore it is vital for health care providers to have an understanding of their legal obligations to their profession and their patients. The Medical Council of New Zealand (2006) believes that patient’s needs should be a priority and that patients are entitled to competent health professionals. Furthermore the Medical Council of New Zealand encourages the maintenance of the patient caregiver relationship through honesty, trustworthiness and integrity. Therefore accountability is essential for health practitioners who do not comply with the accepted standard of care and to be held accountable (Johnson, 2004).
According to Johnson (2004) health practitioners may be held accountable for their conduct by means of civil law proceedings, disciplinary proceedings under their relevant professional legislation e.g. Health Practitioners Act 1995, prosecution for breach of the criminal law, proceedings under the Privacy Act 1993, Human Rights Review Tribunal proceedings under the Human Rights Act 1993, Health and Disability Commissio...
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..., R. (2002) ‘The patients’ complaints system in New Zealand’. Health Affairs. Vol 21, No. 3, p.70-79.
Parliamentary Counsel Office. (2009). New Zealand Legislation Acts. Privacy Act 1993. Retrieved March 18, 2010 from: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0028/latest/DLM296639.html
Parliamentary Counsel Office. (2010). New Zealand Legislation Acts. Official Information Act 1982. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1982/0156/latest/DLM64785.html
Polit, D.F., & Beck, C. T. (2005). Essentials of Nursing Research: methods, appraisal, and utilization (6th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilson.
Seedhouse, D. (1998). Ethics the heart of health care. (2nd ed.). London: Wiley.
St. George, I. (2007) Cole’s Medical Practice in New Zealand. Wellington: Medical Council of New Zealand.
Not only do health care providers have an ethical implication to care for patients, they also have a legal obligation and responsibility to care for the patient. According to the Collins English dictionary, a duty of care is ‘the legal obligation to safeguard others from harm while they are in your care, using your services or exposed to your activities’. The legal definition takes it further by making it a requirement that a person act towards others and the public with watchfulness, attention, caution and prudence which a reasonable person in the circumstances would use. If a person’s actions fail to meet the required standard, then the acts are considered negligent (Hill and Hill, 2002). If a professional fails to abide to the standard of practice for their practice in regards to their peers, they leave themselves open to criticisms or claims of breach of duty of care, and possibly negligence. Negligence is comprised of five elements: (1) duty, (2) breach, (3) cause in fact, (4) proximate cause, and (5) harm. Duty is defined as the implied duty to care/provide service, breach is the lack thereof, cause in fact must be proven by plaintiff, proximate cause means that only the harm caused directly causative to the breach itself and not additional causation, and harm is the specific injury resultant from the breach.
Polit, D. F. & Beck, C. T. (2012). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (9th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Loiselle, C. G., Profetto-McGrath, J., Polit, D. F., Beck C. T., (2007). Canadian essentials of nursing research (2nd ed.) Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This bill aims to provide every Australian a 16 digit identity number and more than 600,000 healthcare providers such as pharmacist, psychologist, podi...
LoBiondo-Wood, G., & Haber, J. (2014). Nursing Research: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-Based Practice (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier, Inc.
Public Expectations: In Health and Social Care, the public expects employees/workers to be caring, respectful towards the patients protected characteristics which means avoiding conflicts such as discrimination and inequality treatments. They should be able to protect personal information of the patients by following the 'Data protection and Confidentiality Act 1998'. They are expected to give good supportive advice towards their patients and employees to improve the quality of work and welfare benefits. They expect higher standards of care, detailed information about their treatment, communication and involvement in decisions making activities and also access to the latest treatments (Thekingsfund,
This paper explores the legal, ethical and moral issues of three healthcare colleagues by applying the D-E-C-I-D-E model as a foundation of decision making as found in Thompson, Melia, and Boyd (2006). Issues explored will be those of the actions of registered nurse (RN) John, his fiancé and also registered nurse (RN) Jane and the Director of Nursing (DON) Ms Day. Specific areas for discussion include the five moral frameworks, autonomy, beneficence, Non – maleficence, justice and veracity in relation with each person involved as supported by Arnold and Boggs (2013) and McPherson (2011). An identification and review of the breached code of ethics and the breached code of conduct in reference with the Nursing, Council, and Federation (2008) will be addressed. Lastly a brief discussion on how the three schools of thought deontology, teleology and virtue had effects on each colleague (McPherson, 2011) .
That is the rising number of negligent acts committed by medical professionals. Failure to follow standard of practice is the leading root cause of the troubles involving malpractice. Failure to assess and monitor the patient, failure to communicate, medication errors, negligent delegation or supervision and failure to obtain informed consent from patients are the top failures leading to malpractice. The American Nurses Association provides scopes and standards that if followed could prevent many of the negligent acts. Duty, Breach of Duty, Foreseeability, Causation, Injury, Damages must be proven for a nurse to be held
In keeping within current legislation on the protection and respect of an individuals’ right of anonymity, (Clamp, Gough and Land 2004; Polit and Beck 2007), and to confidentiality, (Burns and G...
The Data Protection Act 1998 places controls on the length of time, who has access, and how much personal information can be stored on an individual by organisations, businesses and the Government. Any private information must be kept secure in compliance with the law. This ensures the individual’s right to privacy and confidentiality is upheld. (Gov.uk.
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2010). Essentials of Nursing Research (7th ed): Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Example, there are times when we have patients who were tested positive for HIV and after counselling still refuses to disclose their status to their spouse. The spouse is the one taking of this patient in the hospital and you can see her using her bare hands to handle the secretions of the patient despite been warned to use latex gloves. As a nurse or doctor you understand the implication of it and understand fully well that the wife might also be positive. The patient is already on anti-retroviral drugs and is responding gradually but the wife on the other hand knows nothing. The law permits for the wife to be told about the husband's status and she also counselled to undergo the test. If it comes out positive then the treatment is commenced immediately. The treatment will help to increase her CD4 count and save her life. In some cases HIV patient instead of telling their family members to take precautionary measures when caring for them they don’t and the life of this care givers is put at stake. In such cases the nurses can only ensure that their caregivers are educated on proper use of hand gloves to proper themselves especially when dealing with secretions from patient
Polit, D., & Beck, C. (2006). Essentials of nursing research: appraising evidence for nursing practice (7th ed.). Phildelphia: Lippencott Wilkins & Williams.
Potter, P. A., & Perry, A. G. (2009). Fundamentals of nursing (Seventh ed.). St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby Elsevier.
This profile adheres to the School of Health and Social Care’s guidelines set by Teesside University’s code of conduct in relation to confidentiality and consent. The profile also adheres to the NMC guidelines referring to consent and confidentiality as a real person has not been used; therefore consent did not need to be gained.