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Confidentiality as a fundamental aspect of nursing
Annotated bibliography on hipaa
Annotated bibliography on hipaa
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Recommended: Confidentiality as a fundamental aspect of nursing
As a nurse, I hear the words patient confidentiality and patient privacy on a regular basis. These are not just words, these are standards and laws that help protect a person’s medical information from being disclosed to multiple people or entities that have no right to know this personal information. For this discussion board, I will be providing a distinction between patient confidentiality and patient privacy, introduce the discussion board example from the case presentation by Burkhart and Nathaniel, and provide answers to the follow-up questions asked by the authors.
Patient confidentiality and privacy go hand in hand. Confidentiality is defined as the ethical duty of all medical professionals, that have access to a patient’s private
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Even though it is the duty of every nurse to keep patient confidentiality, there are times when the responsibility to protect and prevent harm outweighs the duty to keep patient privacy. The Case Presentation in the book by Burkhardt and Nathaniel (2007), uses the example of Lora, a seventeen-year-old girl, who comes into a family planning clinic for a prescription of birth control. Through the physical assessment, the nurse practitioner finds signs of physical abuse including a traumatic perforated ear drum. The young patient admits to being physically abused by her father who she currently lives with. Further conversation leads to Lora telling the nurse practitioner that she used to live with her stepfather who was sexually assaulting her. Lora feared that if anyone knew about the physical abuse from her biological father, she would be forced to move back in with her mother and stepfather and face sexual abuse once again. She asks the nurse not to tell anyone and to keep what she shared with the medical professional confident between just …show more content…
The Ohio Revised Code section 2151.421 (2016) states that any medical professional, including the registered nurse and nurse practitioner, must immediately report to the public children services agency any reasonable suspicions of physical or mental injury that indicates abuse or neglect of a minor child. A minor child is defined as under eighteen years of age at the time of discovery (Reporting child abuse or neglect, 2016). Reporting abuse does not differ in the state of Ohio if Lora was fourteen or eighteen years old, all abuse must be reported if the child is under eighteen years 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.
A basic definition of confidentiality is that information about a patient is not discussed openly (Edge and Groves, 2007). This ethical principle became an issue when the government gave medical facilities lists of people who were in the study. Again, the patients were not informed that they would not be able to
Overall these sources proved to provide a great deal of information to this nurse. All sources pertained to HIPAA standards and regulations. This nurse sought out an article from when HIPAA was first passed to evaluate the timeline prospectively. While addressing the implications of patient privacy, these articles relate many current situations nurses and physicians encounter daily. These resources also discussed possible violations and methods to prevent by using an informaticist and information technology.
Out of all the duties of a nurse, one of the most important duties is how the nurse honors the trust of a patient by maintaining the patient’s privacy and safeguarding the patient’s information confidentially. Privacy is the ability of the patient to make the choices in how to handle information regarding him or herself that other individuals are not aware of. As an example, prior to releasing the patient’s private information, the nurse must notify the patient on how their information will be handled and get consent from the patient
Professionalism and staying within professional boundaries is not only a critical part of maintaining your patient’s trust, but it is also a law that nurses must follow to remain practicing. Patients are vulnerable to the nurse in this position, so the nurse must be careful not to break this trust. Professional boundaries are the gap between the nurse’s professional position and the vulnerability of the patient. Nurses are required to abide by privacy standards to protect the patient and to practice a therapeutic relationship. A therapeutic relationship is the medium between under-involvement and over-involvement, and is the zone where nurses should remain. One reason why it is so important that nurses do not overstep their boundaries, is that nurses are respected, trusted, and valued by patients. It is important to keep this reputation to be successful in this field (Black, 2014).
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.
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 a nurse, it is within your role to safeguard the right to privacy for individuals. To ensure that nurses are adhering to this, ethical strategies have been proposed and implemented from a legal and regulatory body.
In this paper I will discuss the ethical dilemmas, ethical principles, values from CNO, and CNA, I will also discuss the laws. I will give opinions about my chosen scenario, how I felt and what I thought of it. The best action based on the analysis of this situation is for the nurse not to disclose this patient private and confidential information to her friend. Because if the nurse gives any information of her patient to her friend goes against CNO professional standards, (CNO, 2002). CNO defines standards as “Standards apply to all nurses regardless of their role, job description or area of practice,” (CNO, 2002).
Provision 3.1 of the ANA’s Code of Ethics states that the nurse will promote, advocate, and protect patients’ privacy and confidentiality (American Nurses Association, 2012). The protection of our patients’ privacy is fundamental. The ANA Code of Ethics is not a suggestion; it is a mandate to all nurses. The code calls for nurses to act when the rights of the patient or the nurse are violated through the actions of others (Edmonson, 2010). Even under FERPA guidelines, it is difficult to make an argument for the release of the student’s personal information in the manner of the large staff
Patient confidentiality is one of the foundations to the medical practice. Patients arrive at hospitals seeking treatment believing that all personal information will remain between themselves and the medical staff. In order to assure patients privacy, confidentiality policies were established. However, a confidentiality policy may be broken only in the case the medical staff believes that the patient is a danger to themselves or to others in society. Thesis Statement: The ethics underlying patient confidentiality is periodically questioned in our society due to circumstances that abruptly occur leaving health professionals to decide between right and wrong.
Confidentiality is defined as the protection of personal information. It means keeping a client’s information between the health care providers and the client. Every single patient has the right to privacy regarding their personal information from being released to anyone outside of their health care providers. Health care providers have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect all information regarding patients by not disclosing their information to anyone without their written consent from the patient.
Doctor patient confidentiality, is a fundamental element of the practice of medicine. Patients can expect that doctors and their support staff will hold confidential information about them in confidence, unless the release of the information is required by law or for public interest reasons. Ensuring confidentiality is retained allows doctors to examine their patients and receive all relevant information about their condition without a worry of judgement or sharing of the information.
Similarly, legislation and privacy worries are in effect all cross the globe and nurses have the beliefs which they will continue to keep confidential and private detail and information for their clients within the client doctor realm. However, clients use the medical services to understand that their personal and medical information are not in the wrong person’s hand because in nursing professional, nurses have the most interaction between the client and doctor, these are the preeminent vital to the nurses in nursing
The one topic that we did spend much time on was professionalism, ethics and potential legal issues. Nursing has always been a well-respected profession and demanded ethical and professional behavior and this has helped with the creation of state and national associations that have standardized the nurse’s code of ethics. As nurses we have the ethical responsibility to have nonjudgmental attitudes, to be honest and protect the patient’s rights of privacy and