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Confidentiality in Health Care

             Confidential or Confidentiality is to keep something a secret or entrusted with secrets.
             Maintaining confidentiality is an important aspect of professional behavior. It is essential that a nurse safeguard the client's right to privacy by carefully protecting information of a sensitive, private nature. Sharing personal information or gossiping about others violates nursing ethical codes and practice standards. It sends the message that the nurse cannot be trusted and damages interpersonal relationships. Team members directly involved in the client's care should be given only relevant information about the client's status. Respect for clients is demonstrated when the nurse treats others with dignity and maintains their physical and emotional privacy. A client's medical record is confidential. There are several state and federal statutes that protect the confidentiality of medical information. Unless the client consents, nurses should not disclose confidential client information.
             Health care providers go to great lengths to ensure that client privacy is respected. Medical records may not be copied or forwarded without a client's consent. Health care information, including laboratory results, diagnosis, and prognosis, is not shared with others without specific client consent. This practice even includes preventing other family members or friends of the client from acquiring health care information. Conflicting obligations may arise when a client wants to keep information from insurance companies to preserve coverage or from employers to preserve a job. The commitment to confidentiality is particularly challenged as medical records become computerized. Preservation of confidentiality is often in competition with the need to facilitate access to information. In the case of computer access, health care institutions work to protect confidentiality by using special access codes that limit what certain employees can find on a computer system.


Essays Related to Confidentiality in Health Care

1. Cofidentiality and Adolescent Health

... a teens parents, or are we ethically bound to allow autonomy of a maturing youth? To begin I feel it worthy to give a definition of confidentiality in health care settings. "Confidentiality in a health care setting is defined as an agreement between patient and provider that information discussed during or after the encounter will not be shared with other parties without the ... physicians with their difficult decisions. The Canadian government realizes there is a vast array of development amongst teens, causing much disarray when it comes to laws regulating confidentiality in such a po...

  • Word Count: 2031
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography

2. Confidentiality

... has allowed patients to abandon their usual hesitancy to confess their experiences, concerns, behaviors, ailments, thoughts and fantasies to their health care practitioner. According to Roberts, there are three ways in which confidentiality is critical to effective psychotherapy: (1) it enables individuals to obtain help in dealing with problems or feelings they may consider too shameful, troubling, or socially embarrassing to share with family or friends ... .hep-c-alert.org/links/hippa.html). Since this bill was signed into law, HIPAA has helped to better insure confidentiality for Ame...

  • Word Count: 1564
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Developing Counselling Skills in Health and Social Care

... while the ego acts as a neutral and therefore it makes an individual balanced. (Self – own paper, 2014) 1.2 Evaluate the use of different theoretical perspectives in counselling interactions in health and social care. CBT is considered the most rapid in terms of results obtained and it can take only 16 sessions of the therapy unlike psychodynamics which could take years. The CBT counsellor's role is ... never allowed to work with patients again. Legal factors protecting the rights of a client's confidentiality may place a counsellor in a position of ethical dilemma regards to their res...

  • Word Count: 6937
  • Approx Pages: 28
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Confidentiality in Therapy

... related to abortion. Again the state and federal laws that govern confidentiality and privileged information play an important role in how a counselor should handle such situations. In August 2002, a new federal rule called HIPAA took effect. This rule was designed to protect the privacy of individuals' health information and medical records (Ford, 2002). HIPPA is important because ... it takes into consideration, without laws governing how information is used, individuals may be reluctant to disclose information needed in order to receive proper care. The overall explanation of underst...

  • Word Count: 1014
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. Confidentiality

... the information will be shared with and understands that the information needs to be made available to all those involved in the delivery of his/her care, in order to optimise that care. The service user also has the right to know the standards of confidentiality and how those standards are maintained, this should be made clear at the initial meeting. Clearly we at our ... makes exceptions if the user accidentally exceeds what is permitted. It also covers fraud, extortion and blackmail. As a result of the Data Protection Act 1984', Access Modification (Health) Order 1987' and the Access...

  • Word Count: 1233
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. Confidentiality

... of not to tell. Legally you have an obligation to the patient to keep his confidentiality, if he is not a minor. Ethically there are "4 element principles on respecting a person: autonomy, truth telling, confidentiality, and fidelity"(Darr 20-21). Although in this case even if confidentiality was maintained for the patient, you cannot provide the parents with false information. I ... . But to let him know that you cannot give false information to his parents, only withhold the information that is true, as long as he requests. "Confidentiality is meant to protect persons and the relations...

  • Word Count: 1233
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act And Electronic Privacy And Security

... , was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in August, 1996." (Michael & Pritchett, 2001, p.524) HIPAA regulates various aspects of healthcare and health information, ensures reasonable efforts to ensure patient confidentiality, and guards against improper disclosure of information. HIPAA affects the entire healthcare profession, including health plans, physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. The Health Care Access, Portability, and Renewability section of the HIPAA law ... protects millions of American families concerning access to and changes with health ins...

  • Word Count: 638
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Social Care Values

... promoting their social welfare. Some other theorists refer to these principles as values in their own right. 1 Social Care Practice, Janet Miller, 1996 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. In Miller's view the provision of social care should be influenced by the following principles (or values) of: - promoting acceptance maintaining privacy and confidentiality promoting the right to protection from abuse promoting choice empowerment and risk taking ... choice is neither practical in terms of health and safety, or availability of resources, nor desirable in terms of what leads to a feeling of well-being. Rea...

  • Word Count: 1788
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Protection of Human Rights in Research

... , 2011). The research participants' identity will not be shown publicly, the information provided by the participant will not be used in any other way besides the study. Confidentiality may be violated for the participant when the researcher allows another person to gain access to the study that contains information about the participant (Haber, 2011). The information could be ... study by the research team. Research participants may feel threatened or that their medical care will be compromised, if they refuse to participate in the research study (Haber, 2011). A good example would be,...

  • Word Count: 1236
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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