Privacy In Health Care

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Patients must trust their health care providers to get the best care. If they do not trust the nurses providing their care; this can severely affect the care they receive. The diagnosis could be wrong if the patient provides inaccurate or incomplete information about their symptoms and history. If the patient is reluctant to share their private information their care givers will be treating them as if they had blinders on. Only the external information can be seen not the underlying cause of disease. If the medical profession did not have an understanding with the public that their secrets will not be revealed to any one without the patient’s permission getting accurate appropriate care would be very hard. Patients would be afraid to be honest about problems that could affect every part of their life.
Legislation was passed to protect patients after AIDS epidemic of the 1980’s. Not understanding how AIDS was acquired and passed on to others made every one fearful. Private health information cannot be revealed to any one without permission of the patient not even to their closest family members or to the patient’s employer. We must encourage honesty from the patient to be able to effectively treat their problems.
Legislation has been passed to protect patients with psychiatric problems because the diagnosis of mental health issues can be devastating to a patient. Patients are entitled to a certain amount of privacy regarding their mental health problems as long as they are not a danger to themselves or others.
Every health care provider involved in the care of a patient has obligation to protect the private health information of every patient in their care. Many health care providers can be involved in the care of each patient. Th...

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...ber 23, 2009 the maximum penalty for violating of the confidentiality of patient civil rights was $11,000. But as nurses if we violate the patient’s rights to privacy we have a personal sense of failure. We take our responsibilities to our patients, to our families, the public and our co-workers.
In nursing the nurses have the control over the professional standards they work to improve the quality of care for patients and their safety. Nurses are also responsible for their autonomy and higher job satisfaction. The quality of standards for our profession helps to create a safe environment and a healthy one atmosphere for nurses to work in.
A good orientation to the profession is one of the most important thing for a new graduate it effects turnover, satisfaction and retention. The standards of practice help create an environment for improving nurse conflict skills.
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