The nursing profession is among the key areas that developed in the past centuries.
This profession involves the relationship between medical practitioners and patients.
The communication between these groups has become a best practice in this line of profession.
Ethics refers to the acceptable conduct of practice in a given field of operations.
Ethics are among the factors that have been developed to guide nursing practice.
Confidentiality of information and other factors help in achieving ethical goals.
Ethics refers to the acceptable conduct of behavior in a given field of profession. Nursing is one of the professions affected by ethical practices in operation. The doctor patient relationship requires a given level of commitment that would facilitate information flow from patients to doctors. all these practices aim at achieving quality development in offering health services to nurses
confidentiality is among the factors that affect the ethical conducts of medical practices under different scenarios . It implies that there needs to be privacy of information among patients and health practitioners in delivering their services. some factors such as technology have led to easy access of personal information that may affect the privacy levels of patients.
Confidentiality principle attempts to explain the limits to which access of information may be necessary (McGowan, 2012)..
The increased levels of technologies have led medical records being stored in computers and other devices.
Patients are also increasingly becoming aware of their rights in medical practices.
Confidentiality as an ethic in nursing have many importance that it portrays.
The facts affect doctor-patient relationships
Some of the relevance of this ethical practice in nursing include:
there are several advantages that can accrue to the nursing profession as whole in trying to develop the concept of confidentiality. this includes the rights of patients to have their information protected within the various nursing practices. all these are meant to protect the image of patients and also assist in facilitating communication in favor of providing health services.
The rights of patients to have their information protected
It is a legal profession responsibility of nurses to embrace confidentiality.
This ethical approach provides the public with confidence in trusting the health care services (Steele, 2001)
This ethical principle also increases the security of medical environment that patients have.
The concept also increases compliance of nurses
These importance make nursing a globally universal centre
another principle that nursing takes keen note of is the principle of impartiality. this element attempts to explain all factors that can lead to indifferences in terms of the ways in which medical conduct takes place. this also identifies the major elements under which there would be bases of impartial behaviors
Impartiality refers to the principle of treating people equally without prejudice (Lim, & Park, 2012).
Evaluating patients on the basis of prejudice factors affect the ways in which the profession functions.
Impartiality may be on the basis of:
the ability to pay for medical services
sex
race
medical condition
other personal based factors like physical appearances and hygiene levels
The research in ethical practices applied in nursing takes to key perspectives that attempt to analyze the various scenarios that parties advocate for in both confidentiality and impartiality principles. On the basis of confidentiality the following statement is regarded: “your personal information should be kept a secret from everyone unless consent from you or your spouse.” on the basis of impartiality principle the following question is examined: “Would we want a nurse to treat us differently based on our ability to pay, race and /or sex or perhaps because of our medical condition?”
There are two possible perspectives that one can embrace in explaining ethical principles of nursing.
These perspectives elaborates the situations on the ethical principle.
In the confidentiality principle, the perspective attempts to determine that medical information should be kept away from everyone else part from the consent of the individual or spouse.
The impartiality principle attempts to investigate whether it would be right to treat patients based on factors like gender, ability to pay and medical conditions.
the theory of egoism attempts to explain the facts related to putting the interest of an individual ahead of other factors of others. maximizing moral actions depend on the consequences that an individual would experience in relation to individual desires
The egoism theory is an ethical based aspect that states that individuals would always achieve their own interests (Schmid, 2010).
This theory is essential in explaining the confidentiality principle in nursing.
This theoretical perspective advocates that moral actions are judged based on individual interest.
This theory maximize interests by keeping individuals happy about a given action (Schmid, 2010).
This theory supports the confidentiality principle to greater extents.
The activities in this principle advocates for interests of patients.
confidentiality principle entails protecting the interest of individuals against exposure. the interest of individuals in this case pertains to the protection of medical information that they exhibit in the health care services. egoism theory is in support of the activities that go in hand with confidentiality approach since they tend to advocate for similar results
Confidentiality principle aims at protecting the rights of individuals in nursing practice.
Egoism theory attempts to maximize the morality of nursing practices by establishing confidentiality on medical information.
The aims of confidentiality is to provide protection to patients
This protection aspect translates to individual interest as stated by egoism theory
The confidentiality principle also advocates for providing quality medical environment for patients (Schmid, 2010).
This supports the claim of having no one view medical information without appropriate consents
The extent of universal activities between people in nursing practice is supported by the fact that people expect same outcomes (Østerberg, 2009).
Utilitarianism outdo the facts of prejudice that exist in nursing practices
Utilitarianism also focuses on best outcome for all groups of people in a given bracket. This prevents the levels of impartial practices in medical sectors (Foss, 2002).
Generally, there is a direct relationship between the philosophy that this theory applies and the impartiality principle as an ethical practice in nursing.
This theory challenges the facts of self interest that may exist in nursing operations.
It challenges the personal interest factors that are involved in medical practices.
This is portrays challenges to the confidentiality approach of nursing practices
It would result into exposure of information of medical information of other patients if the interests of all people were to be taken care of in operation.
Utilitarianism also challenges the practice of information availability.
This fact implies that it does not advocate for single based practices in maximizing on morals
Peter is a 18 year student old who you have seen in the local clinic. He has often practiced unsafe sex. He is being treated for gonorrhea but has failed to attend for any follow –up to ensure successful treatment. You are aware that he will be returning back home at the end of term and so may never return for follow-up. Should you let his GP know?
Joyce is a district nurse from another practice. She has had a positive HIV test. After counseling she refuses to tell her husband, stating ‘we always use condoms’. He is also your patient. Can you tell him? What about her employer?
Janet is a nurse at the district hospital. On a given day two patients are brought to the hospitals almost at the same time. From clear indications, the patient that came two minutes earlier than the other have no ability to pay for health service fees. The other one that comes in 2 minutes later have all the ability to afford the healthcare services. which patient would Janet attend to and why?
References
Foss, C. (2002). Gender bias in nursing care? Gender-related differences in patient satisfaction with the quality of nursing care. Scandinavian Journal Of Caring Sciences, 16(1), 19-26
McGowan, C. (2012). Patients’ Confidentiality. Critical Care Nurse, 32(5), 61-65
Schmid, H. B. (2010). Philosophical egoism: its nature and limitations. Economics and Philosophy, 26(2), 217-240
Steele, M. (2001). Confidentiality. Nursing BC, 33(1), 27
Lim, J., & Park, C. (2012). Statistical Methods to Control Response Bias in Nursing Activity Surveys [Korean]. Journal Of Korean Academy Of Nursing, 42(1), 48-55
Østerberg, D. (2009). V. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY AND UTILITARIANISM. International Journal Of Sociology, 9(4), 90
