Essay On Privacy And Confidentiality

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Privacy and confidentiality are correlated with one another; however, they hold different meanings. Privacy is viewed as an autonomy ethical principle, and confidentiality relates to the fidelity principle. Ones' right to manage their personal information and whom that information may be shared with is privacy, it is an individual's right (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2016, p. 76). Confidentiality is the backbone to privacy because it upholds this right for every person. In other words, once a person chooses to disclose their personal information to another individual, it is that individual's responsibility to keep the information confidential unless consent is given for disclosure, one must protect that person's privacy. (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, …show more content…

My patients' wife had dementia and my patient previously cared for her before he was admitted to the hospital. The wife was temporarily being cared for by their daughter and son in law. An altercation transpired in the patients' room, and ultimately escalated to the point I had to ask the family members to leave. The son in law informed me that he would be leaving the wife in the patients' room for the night. I explained to him that, unfortunately, because of her health conditions she could not stay the night unsupervised because I was incapable of ensuring her safety because she was not a patient. He understood and reluctantly stated they would take her home. The wife refused to leave the room and stated that the son in law put his hands on her, was rough with her, and was a very mean man. This further complicated the issue because what she had stated to me implied she was being abused. I discussed the issue with our nurse supervisor who state the wife has dementia and the validity of her statement could not be verified. While I understood this, and agreed that it could not be verified at the time, I had an obligation to ensure the safety of this women and not to release her into a harmful situation. I took her to the emergency department to speak with a social worker for placement, and called adult protective services. Although, I wish there was more I could do in the moment to

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