Privacy and Confidentiality of patient’s information
The healthcare practitioners bear the responsibility of ensuring that they defend and protect the rights of the patients; ensure promotion of passionate care and enhance the dignity and autonomy of their clients or patients. The practitioners are often required to choose amongst some right or options considered least wrong besides ensuring effective assessment of the patients and upholding confidentiality of the choices made. However, nurses often face many ethical issues in their everyday life in the healthcare setting. Dealing with these challenges can sometimes be problematic. There is thus the necessity for ensuring acquisition of appropriate knowledge regarding some of the skills considered
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There is need for keeping the information regarding the patients confidential and private since it ensures the protection of the patients from potential harm. The guidelines regarding maintenance of confidentiality of the patient’s information play a significant role in promoting accountability of the nurses and in providing an outline of the responsibilities of the nurses by both the organisation and the …show more content…
Therefore, protection of the rights to confidentiality of the patient’s information is crucial in ensuring effectiveness in the organization’s capability to create a conducive environment that assures the clients of delivery of quality services and effectiveness in meeting their demands. The nurses and other healthcare practitioners bear the responsibility of ensuring that the environment that they create at the workplace safeguards the rights of the patients to confidentiality. The professionals play a crucial role in advocating for the surrounding that provides the adequate physical confidentiality, which includes the auditory privacy for the discussions of seemingly personal nature, practices and policies that guarantee the protection of confidentiality of information that the patients share with the nurses. Furthermore, security of the health information is vital for the development of trust with the patients and indicates respect to their privacy. The absence of trust between the nurse and client is likely to result in the customer's withholding or providing false information that would be crucial in the provision of
Disclosing confidential patient information without patient consent can happen in the health care field quite often and is the basis for many cases brought against health care facilities. There are many ways confidential information gets into the wrong hands and this paper explores some of those ways and how that can be prevented.
Confidentiality is a major topic within care environments. When it comes to deciding what information is shared and who it is shared amongst can be difficult. Confidential information, is information that is ‘not to be told to anyone’ (The Open University, 2015, p. 58). Information that is sensitive or not publicly known is confidential, also if information is given by a person who is in a setting where confidentially is expected then that information should remain private and not shared with others. It can be very difficult for a staff member to find the balance between knowing what information is confidential and appropriate information that needs to be shared between the staff team.
During week 4, we became familiar with the application of ethics in the nursing practice settings. We learned about ethical theories and principles, which are crucial when practicing in any clinical settings during ethical decision-making and while facing one or multiple ethical dilemmas. Also, we were introduced to the MORAL model used in ethical decision – making progress. The MORAL model is the easiest model to use in the everyday clinical practice, for instance at bedside nursing. This model can be applyed in any clinical settings and its acronyms assist
In the modern era, the use of computer technology is very important. Back in the day people only used handwriting on the pieces of paper to save all documents, either in general documents or medical records. Now this medical field is using a computer to kept all medical records or other personnel info. Patient's records may be maintained on databases, so that quick searches can be made. But, even if the computer is very important, the facility must remain always in control all the information they store in a computer. This is because to avoid individuals who do not have a right to the patient's information.
Support: In health and social care practice, an individual is given required privacy, given independence, allowed individuality. Besides these, every individual is given equal rights, support, attention and care and his friends and families also treated properly. In health and social care, individual from culture of wide variety to be served and for this reason, views and values from different cultures and communities are respected.
An ethical dilemma is defined as a mental state when the nurse has to make a choice between the options and choices that he or she has at her disposal. The choice is a crucial task as the opting of the step will subsequently determine the health status of the concerned patient, hence it requires a great deal of wisdom along with proper medical and health training before any such step is opted as it is a matter of life and death. Strong emphasis should therefore be on the acquisition of proper knowledge and skills so that nurses do posses the autonomy to interact with patients regarding ethical issues involved in health care affairs and address them efficiently. It is normally argued that nurses are not provided sufficient authority to consult and address their patients on a more communicative or interactive level as a result of which they are often trapped in predicaments where their treatments of action and their personal beliefs create a conflict with the health interests of the patient. (Timby, 2008)
Nursing surrounds the concept of patient care physically, mentally and ethically. The therapeutic relationship that is created is built on the knowledge and skills of the nurse and relies on patient and nurse trusting one another. The use of nursing skills can ensure these boundaries are maintained, it allows for safe patient care. Professional boundaries are the line that nurses cannot cross, involving aspects such as patient confidentiality and privacy, ensuring legal aspects of nursing and the boundaries put in place are not breached. However, nurses accepting financial or personal gain from patient can also cross these professional boundaries. It is only through education in this area that the rights of patients can be preserved, as well as the nursing standards. Through education in areas such as confidentiality, boundaries can remain in tact and the patient care can remain within the zone of helpfulness.
Which is very important for nurses or any medical professional to do in the healthcare profession. Nurses are receiving these patients in their most vulnerable state, nurses are exposed and trusted with the patients’ information to further assist them on providing optimum treatment. Keeping patient’s information private goes back to not just doing what’s morally right but also it also builds that nurse – patient relationship as well. We also have provision three that specifically taps on this issue as well, as it states: “The nurse seeks to protect the health, safety, and rights of patient.” (Nurses Code of Ethics,
As health care providers, nurses strive to instill confidence in their patients and their loved ones. A nurse is respectful to their colleagues as well as their patients. Nurses promote patients’ independence, patients can be confident in the knowledge that a nurse will do what is best for them, respecting their privacy and dignity. This means that a nurse does not share the patient information for personal reasons nor does the nurse get involved in a patients personal relationship if it is not medically relevant (NCSBN, 2011).
Nurses run into patients’ rights daily like autonomy and informed consent, the rule that deals with patient’s informed consent is the patient will benefit by obtaining adequate and accurate information. The commitment to provide care and the needs of the patient, one reason an informed consent form wouldn’t be signed because of confidentiality, which means that patient wants total privacy; no one is to know he’s there, no paper trial. Another reason would be if no risks were involved.
There is a great importance and focus in modelling a contemporary nurse. The framework for improving this focus is accountability with three main areas: professional, ethical, legal. They all cross over and interlink with each other in many of the topics that are raised within the profession. The approach of the framework were inevitable to reduces to blame and defensive nursing attitude. This attitude can lead to nurses believing accountability is the same as blaming a professional however it is conversely nurses making decisions for individuals and engaging to improve better health outcomes. The topic around this contemporary approach is confidentiality and broken into the principles of the approach.
A norm in society is when an individual sees danger they are supposed to report it to the authorities, therefore preventing any further damage. Breach of confidentiality is when a nurse shares information about a patient to others who are not authorized to know about the patients personal information. Due to this, patients are afraid to be honest with their physicians and nurses that are treating them. In order to assure pati...
In every nurse's career, he or she will face with legal and ethical dilemmas. One of the professional competencies for nursing states that nurses should "integrate knowledge of ethical and legal aspects of health care and professional values into nursing practice". It is important to know what types of dilemmas nurses may face
In conclusion, there are numerous legal and ethical issues apparent in the nursing practice. Nurses should study and be as informed as they can with ethics and legality within their field in order to ensure no mistakes occur. Ethical issues vary based on patient’s views, religion, and environment. Nurses are influenced by these same views, but most of the time they are not the same as the patients. As a nurse we must learn to put the care of our patients and their beliefs, rights, and wishes before our own personal
In this log, one of the most important aspect of law in reference to the role of nurses and decision making will be discussed. I chose Confidentiality as the topic to be discussed and this log will also define it with regards to how it affects and make an impact to the nursing practice. Maintaining confidentiality is fundamental and essential for the nurse and patient relationship as it gives confidence and expectation to them that the nurse will be able to respect their right to privacy and by ensuring confidentiality(Griffith & Tengnah, 2014). Nurses are also obligated to maintain and respect the confidentiality of the patient professionally and legally because it is emphasised in the NMC code and is also stated in HPC standards (Gallagher