Ethical And Legal Responsibility Of Nurses Regarding Privacy And Confidentiality

Nurse, Privacy, and Confidentiality

Nursing professional is termed as an integral part of the healthcare sector. It has been witnessed that nurses are charged with many responsibilities as their ultimate goal is to provide quality care to the patients. One major responsibility of nurses is to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the client while providing them care. Privacy and confidentiality are basic needs of care and nurses should make sure that they do not commit any activity which can raise an issue related to privacy. The nursing and midwifery board of Australia has provided a national framework within which nurses and midwives should practice (NMBA, 2018). This essay will talk about the ethical and legal responsibility of nurses regarding privacy and confidentiality. It will also talk about the challenges faced by the student nurses in maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the client. It will also discuss best practices surrounding when confidential information can be disclosed.

The nurse is the one who is termed as the main healthcare worker who deals with the patients and their families. They are the ones who are responsible for providing the car and desired medication to the client. The role of nurses is quite an important one in healthcare and it has been witnessed that their care has a major impact on the health outcome of the client (Blackwood et al., 2019).

Patient privacy is an important thing as it helps the patient have enough space for himself. There should be proper privacy given to an individual by the nurses and individual privacy should not be hampered at any cost. Individual details should always be kept private and it should not be made public.

Confidentiality is important in healthcare and it can be said that when a nurse is having personal information about the client then the information should be kept confidential (Pitts & Forman, 2020). Nurses should keep the information safe with them and information should not be provided to anyone without client consent.

Social media is regarded as the latest media platform where individuals spend a lot of time. It has been witnessed that nurses also share their experience on social media platforms with other nurses and related healthcare professionals. They share their work to gain more knowledge and for learning purposes. But the privacy of an individual should never be shared on any social media platform.

Summary of seven legal and ethical responsibilities surrounding confidentiality

Summary of seven legal and ethical responsibilities surrounding confidentiality

 It has been witnessed that the NMBA framework includes all the responsibilities of the nurses and also presents a probable blueprint through which nurses have to work. Privacy and confidentiality are considered to be one of the major things in healthcare and NMBA has also mentioned the same in their framework. Principle 3.5 in NMBA talks about the confidentiality and privacy of the code of conduct for the nurses while providing care to the patient. Nurses must remember some important points regarding safeguarding privacy and confidentiality.

1. Nurses should make sure that they are respecting the privacy of the client. Nurses need to seek the consent of the client before disclosing information about them. Nurses should always maintain confidentiality as it is an important part of providing respect to the client (Kim, Han & Kim, 2017). Nurses should not share the information with anyone without getting consent from the client.  Consent is an important part of healthcare and without consent, no action should be taken by the nurses. It has been discussed that consent of a client is the ultimate priority for the nurses.

For example – Nurses should ask the client whether they can share their information with others nurses or not. They should wait for consent from the client before making a move. Respecting the client is crucial as it helps in building a good relationship as well.

1. When nurses are providing treatment to multiple patients at the same time in a shared place then they should make sure that their consultation with the client is held in a private and secure environment. Nurses need to provide enough private space to the patients while having a consultation and discussion with them (Schmidt & McArthur, 2018). It becomes more important when there are multiple people at the same time or the patient is there in a shared space. There should be a proper space for a consultation where there is no one hearing the conversation with the client.  Nurses should look for a time or place where no one is listening to their conversation. They should provide maximum private space to the patients (Lin & Tsai, 2019).  For example – if there are 5 patients, in a room and the nurse needs to have a consultation with one of them. The nurse should look for an appropriate time or way to have a conversation with the client. They should not have conversations openly which can lead to other people listening to the conversation. It is important to maintain the confidentiality level of the client.
2. Social media is one of the fastest-growing platforms around the globe. Nurses share their experiences over the social media platform with their colleagues. However, nurses should make share that they do not share any private information about the client on social media. They must share only relevant information but they should not share any information that might hamper the privacy factor of an individual (Hao & Gao, 2017). It is more about working through the Social media policy of NMBA and also understanding the importance of the client's personal information and respecting it as well. Consultation of information is quite common in healthcare but confidential information should not be part of sharing.
3. One major thing which nurses need to follow is that they can only access records of the patient when they are handling his case or having collaboration for that personal care. They should only be looking at the information when they are somehow connected to the patient care and they are having permission to look at the patient information (Sweeney et al., 2021). They should not access any patient information if they are not handling the case. Nurses need to understand their professional duties while providing care. However, if nurses are asking for assistance for a case that they are not connected to then they have every right to access the client's information. If nurses are not assigned to a patient then they have no right to look for his information. It is more of the ethical responsibility of the nurse to follow professionals while doing their job.

For example – It has been witnessed that sometimes nurses try to get the details of the patient which they are not in charge of. This is one of the things which is quite common in healthcare. Such things should be avoided as this can cause a major lapse in the privacy of an individual. Nurses should never look for any client details at a personal level when they are not involved.

1. Nurses are responsible for maintaining confidentiality about client information. Nurses are having the health-related information of the client. Nurses should make sure that they are not transmitting patient information to anyone else and should not share the information or reproduce the information of the client (Ozaras & Abaan, 2018). They should also restrict themselves from sharing client pictures without their consent and should not post about patient information as well. Even posting information without naming the client is not acceptable in healthcare settings. Even positing a picture is considered to be an act of breaching the privacy of the client.
2. When nurses are asked to provide access to health information to someone else other than the client then they should refer to the policy regarding privacy. They should be making their decisions considering the local policy. It is important to make decisions based on the policies as it helps in taking the right decision. They should also make sure that they are recognizing a person's right to access any information (Benham-Hutchins et al., 2017). There should be proper facilitation of information while transferring the information of the patient.
3. Nurses should always work with the policy and legislation which is there for sharing the information of the client. When nurses are closing a case of a patient or relocating the case to another nurse or healthcare clinic then they should arrange a proper way to share the information of the client (Cashin et al., 2017). It should b shared securely and there should not be any negligence done in this case. All the arrangements should be done according to the legislation governing policy and health records.

It has been witnessed that student nurses find themselves in tough situations while maintaining privacy and confidentiality of the information. One major issue which has been witnessed by the student nurses is when the client's family members seek information about the client. It is a situation when students need tough to understand the right to information of the client's family members (Chan & Lai, 2017). It has also been seen that student nurses take consultation from the senior nurses regarding the care approach they should prefer in a particular case. While discussing with the colleagues they share vital information about the client with others. It is more about the situation when they are not much aware of the right policies through which they can share the information of the client (Green, 2017).

It is important to understand the suitable condition where a nurse can talk about confidential information with others. One thing which should be done is to take the consent of the client. Taking client consent is the best possible solution which can be done before sharing the information (Lamont, Stewart & Chiarella, 2019). Client consent allows to share the information with others and then there is no issue raised regarding confidentiality. Through legislation and policies, the information can be shared with others and it should be done according to the set rules which are there. But taking the client's consent is the best possible way to disclose the information about the client (Birch & Todd, 2020).

Difficulties for Student Nurses

Conclusion

Based on the above discussions, it can be summarized that it is important for nurses to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the client. They should understand that while providing care to the patients they should remember common instances which could lead to privacy breaches of the client. They need to follow NMBA for further guidance. The nurse should not share any health-related information with any other individual. They should not transmit or leak the information without the client's consent. They need to understand that fact that they should always handle the information in a secretive manner and before sharing information with colleagues or family members of the patient, they should look forward to local policy. Student nurse also finds some issues while maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the client. It is more like a situation when they are pressurized by the client's family members. The best possible way to disclose the information of the client is by taking the consent of the client and then disclosing the information.  

References

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