Confidentiality is a concept of vast importance for professionals in the medical field. It is a professional obligation in this field and is considered to be an ethical concept that falls in line with integrity, compassion, veracity, charity, and fidelity as explained in both the International Council of Nurses Code for Nurses (1973) and the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics (1985). However, in today’s ever growing world of technology and demand for information, challenges continue to arise that force doctors and nurses to reexamine virtues such as confidentiality. In the article, “Confidentiality: Concept analysis and clinical application”, author Winifred Ellenchild, examines confidentiality from both a theoretical perspective using concept analysis and through the use of a clinically based empirical investigation. The author compared the two approaches and discussed the features, credentials, costs, empirical referents, and implications for clinical practice. The results discussed in the article are those provided through a research project involving participants’ definitions of confidentiality and confidentiality issues. To begin the understanding of confidentiality, the author first provided readers with a formal concept analysis on confidentiality. He explained how confidentiality did not truly become a concept of interested until 1961, when the general nursing guides made a small mention related to the concept in regards to privileged
The main ethical issues that presented in the case scenario is maintaining privacy and confidentiality. “Privacy is limited access to a person, the person’s body, conversations, bodily functions or objects immediately associated with the person” (CNO, 2009, p. 7). Nurses recognize the importance
Confidentiality is central to trust between doctors, medical team and patients. Patients have a right to expect that information about them will be held in confidence. The birth of the Hippocratic Oath in the fourth century started the responsibility of physicians to preserve the privacy and confidentiality of their patients. One of the provisions of the Oath lays the ethical foundation for the physician’s duty of confidentiality even beyond the circumstances of medical care. The Florence Nightingale Pledge, which was composed in 1893, was a modification of the “Hippocratic Oath,” a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession. Included in the pledge is to hold in confidence
Care providers strive to provide care that is patient focused that maintains confidentiality and respect. This paper is about the maintenance of patient confidentiality and the trusting relationships that must be maintained between the patient and the healthcare providers.
Health Care Provider is a very substantial field in health care as it is the procedure for caring for, or nurturing for an individual known as the ‘patient’. It also refers to the roles and duties carried out by persons who have had formal education and training in the art and science of health professionals. Existence critical in the health care field, certain roles and practices are being perceived by care for in order to more effectively and more efficiently provide services to their patients. To further provide acceptable service to their patients, health care providers, also have to witness moral and ethical values and practices, as ethics and morals may serve to provide dilemmas and conflicts in translation adequate service to patients.
The American Nurses Association defines privacy as: is the right to control access to, and disclosure and nondisclosure of, information pertaining to oneself and to control the circumstance, timing, and the extent to which any information can be disclosed (American Nurses Association, 2015, p. 9). Nurses must defend the patient’s right to privacy while advocating for an environment that provides sufficient physical privacy that includes privacy for any discussions of a personal nature. According to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) (2011), any information may only be disclosed to other members of the health care team for health care purposes. Any confidential information shared should be done only
Patient confidentiality is the most important bastion of medicine.” (Careerprofiles.info) You have to protect private information of a patient. It is mandatory in continuing the bond of trust and loyalty between the nurse and the patient and also the family members. Patients’ safety is very important. “Nurses is critical to the surveillance patients’ outcomes. Nurses can upgrade patients’ safety by watching their patient’s closely and also attract the family too.” (Ecpi.edu)
Castledine, G., 2010. Limitations of confidentiality, British Journal of Nursing, [e-journal] 19 (2), Available through: Anglia Ruskin University Library website [Ac
Patient confidentiality is part of the Nursing Code of Ethics and it is a nurses’ duty to uphold confidentiality of patient information (American Nurses Association, 2012). However, there are certain situations in which a confidentiality breach is acceptable, such as when a patient voices harm to themselves or others and certain sexually transmitted diseases STDs). The following is a breakdown of the ethical implications of a breach of confidentiality, the ethical theory, the alternatives to breaching confidentiality using the framework of
In the medical practice, keeping confidential is strictly requested for physicians, as it favors positive communication between physicians and the patients they take care, leading to a good, long-term physician-patient
Privacy is one of the fundamental policies and principles that should be adhered to by each professional nurse (Cileska, 2001). In addition, confidentiality is another equally important principle that should be observed by each of the nurses in the nursing profession. The reason for emphasising on confidentiality and privacy is meant to preserve the nursing ethics and to protect the privacy of the patients (Dickenson, 2004). Since most of the diseases are not meant to be exposed to the public, it should be the responsibility of each nurse to ensure that all patient information remains private and confidential this gives hope and trust to the
The argument of whether or not medical confidentiality needs to be absolute or not sparks necessary discussions among doctors and ethicists. M. A. Crook addresses this issue in his article, The Risks of Absolute Medical Confidentiality, which discusses the holes in the argument that patient confidentiality should always be up kept. Crook presents detailed examples of scenarios in which confidentiality should have been broken, provides credible sources to support his opinion, and compares his points to other significant issues. Certain aspects of Crook’s argument enable it to be an overall well-written and persuasive article.
At a practice level, the importance and guidance of the Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics and NPA are demonstrated on a daily basis with regard to the issues of documentation, informed consent and open disclosure, and confidentiality. With respect to documentation, nurses must be able to document patient assessments and responses in an accurate, comprehensive and confidential manner and record all observations objectively. Informed consent and open disclosure are also major legal issues nurses face daily. It refers to the communication between the patient and health professional that results in the patient's agreement to undergo a specific procedure and requires that the patient has thoroughly understood the procedure, implications and risks prior to giving written consent.
The main focus of the article is to look at the absolute value of patients’ confidentiality. Blightman et al. look at the pros and cones of breaking patient’s confidentiality and conclude that a breached of confidentiality is in order when it is necessary to obtain consent, as required by law, or when it is in the best interest of the public. The article is useful to my subject, since it examines in details the main issues involving the safeguard of patients’ information. In addition, the authors define confidential information, looks at breaching confidentiality for consent, audits, protection of children, disclosure to family and friends, statutory disclosure, prevention of crime, public interest, public safety, public health, and disclosure to the media. The paper publication is Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care & Pain, which s a joint publication of the British Journal of Anaesthesia and The Royal College of Anaesthetists in the UK. It is also the official journal of The Faculty of Pain Medicine and The College of Anaesthetists of Ireland. Publication in such an esteemed journal requires utterly scrutinized of reliability and credibility of the information provided. I found the article educational and thorough in its coverage of aspects of breach of patient information. It is also well written and easy to understand.
The ANMC (2010, pp.6) state on the topic of confidentiality, that nurses must insure the information obtained in a professional setting remain private and that information received is not used by nurses to give them an advantage or power in any way. Education in the matter is one solution to guarantee the boundaries and to keep a professional position. These breaches can be classified as boundary crossings, boundary violations or sexual misconduct and can lead to violations of a nurse’s professional responsibility causing consequences to occur.
Knowing the difference between privacy and confidentiality can be confusing. Privacy is the right of individuals to keep information about themselves from being disclosed; that is, people (our patients) are in control of others access to themselves or information about themselves. Patients decide who, when, and where to