Nursing is an international profession that deals with vulnerable patients in their care, therefore, it is a highly regulated practice that needs to follow strict legal and ethical frameworks. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) produces standards and principles nurses must follow to ensure that healthcare is synecdochized and controlled professionally. A main concept that maintains safe, high-quality health care and correlates with the lawful and moral structure of nursing is confidentiality. This underpins professional practice primarily through the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN). These frameworks guide …show more content…
Electronic medical records (EMR) have been implemented for this. The EMR has access controls like passwords and PINs to make sure only authorised staff can access certain medical records. Nurses can maintain confidentiality in practice by following the policies and procedures of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, the NMBA, HIPAA, the company and their systems like EMR. Nurses use laws to guide their decision-making, these laws are provided through policies, procedures and required training. This guides nurses’ decisions on how to provide high-quality health care by following the key professional legal frameworks that direct them when in practice. By nurses following these trainings, it provides them with a broad knowledge of confidentiality and how to maintain it within all aspects of practice. Nurses should follow confidentiality legally by ensuring no non-consensual photos are taken and maintain the security of patient records by following the Privacy Act 1988
As the evolution of healthcare from paper documentation to electronic documentation and ordering, the security of patient information is becoming more difficult to maintain. Electronic healthcare records (EHR), telenursing, Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE) are a major part of the future of medicine. Social media also plays a role in the security of patient formation. Compromising data in the information age is as easy as pressing a send button. New technology presents new challenges to maintaining patient privacy. The topic for this annotated bibliography is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Nursing informatics role is imperative to assist in the creation and maintenance of the ease of the programs and maintain regulations compliant to HIPAA. As a nurse, most documentation and order entry is done electronically and is important to understand the core concepts of HIPAA regarding electronic healthcare records. Using keywords HIPAA and informatics, the author chose these resources from scholarly journals, peer reviewed articles, and print based articles and text books. These sources provide how and when to share patient information, guidelines and regulation d of HIPAA, and the implementation in relation to electronic future of nursing.
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,
Ethical issues arise daily in the healthcare world. The manor in which issues are addressed vary. “There are, it might be said, as many histories of nursing ethics as there are individual ethicists and professional or cultural contexts” (Guildford 2010, p.1). “A code of ethics is a fundamental document for any profession. It provides a social contract with the society served, as well as ethical and legal guidance to all members of the profession” (Lachman 2009, p.55). According to Lachman, since the original ANA Code from 1950, the significance of service to others has been consistent. Two changes in the code have occurred since the original. First, not only the patient is being treated, but the family and community where they live are also considered.
Nursing is a noble profession where nurses are the front line carer of the patient. To provide competent patient care, nurses use their critical thinking skills in making a decision. In their professional practice, nurses and nursing students have the responsibility to comply with the guidelines provided by NMBA (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia). The given case study deals with the responsibility and accountability of nurses and nursing students regarding privacy and confidentiality.
...Council, M., & Federation, A. N. (2008). Codes of Professional Conduct & Ethics for Nurses & Midwives, 2008: Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act passed and were signed into law on August 21, 1996. It affects the medical facility and its day to day operations; in many different ways. HIPAA sets higher standard of operation for healthcare workers and the facilities. "HIPAA was instituted to "improve the portability and continuity of health insurance coverage; to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and healthcare delivery; to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long term care services and coverage; to simplify the administration of health insurance; and to serve other purposes" (Kinn’s, 2011).
The regulation of healthcare professionals in Australia, specifically Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses, and Allied Healthcare, is overseen by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) through the regulation of registration requirements. AHPRA and the NMBA play a crucial role in upholding the standards, registration requirements, and practice standards for Registered Nurses. These organisations are integral to ensuring that nurses meet the necessary levels of professionalism and competency. The NMBA ensures that all Registered Nurses comply with the appropriate requirements for education, training, and ethical behaviour. Adherence to these regulations is imperative
1. Legal, ethical and professional principle frameworks underpin all fields of nursing, and it is a requirement for all Registered Nurses to be competent and knowledgeable, act with integrity and maintain professional standards set out by Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2015). Working with multidisciplinary teams within our profession, it is important to acknowledge and recognise the way in which all the professionals are guided by law and their independent regulatory bodies. The needs of the individual patient is to be considered by doctors and nurses alike, who share professional values and are set out in the respective codes of practice, The Code (NMC, 2015) and GMC (2013).
Nursing surrounds the concept of patient care physically, mentally and ethically. The therapeutic relationship that is created is built on the knowledge and skills of the nurse and relies on patient and nurse trusting one another. The use of nursing skills can ensure these boundaries are maintained, it allows for safe patient care. Professional boundaries are the line that nurses cannot cross, involving aspects such as patient confidentiality and privacy, ensuring legal aspects of nursing and the boundaries put in place are not breached. However, nurses accepting financial or personal gain from patient can also cross these professional boundaries. It is only through education in this area that the rights of patients can be preserved, as well as the nursing standards. Through education in areas such as confidentiality, boundaries can remain in tact and the patient care can remain within the zone of helpfulness.
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 conclusion, there are numerous legal and ethical issues apparent in the nursing practice. Nurses should study and be as informed as they can with ethics and legality within their field in order to ensure no mistakes occur. Ethical issues vary based on patient’s views, religion, and environment. Nurses are influenced by these same views, but most of the time they are not the same as the patients. As a nurse we must learn to put the care of our patients and their beliefs, rights, and wishes before our own personal
A norm in society is when an individual sees danger they are supposed to report it to the authorities, therefore preventing any further damage. Breach of confidentiality is when a nurse shares information about a patient to others who are not authorized to know about the patients personal information. Due to this, patients are afraid to be honest with their physicians and nurses that are treating them. In order to assure pati...
Nursing is based on the ethical value of a commitment to promoting well-being by providing competent and compassionate care. Guidelines and codes are beneficial because they state values, obligations and limitations. These guidelines are designed to help nurse's think and resolve ethical and professional questions and issues. The nurse is faced with many legal and ethical dilemmas. One of the ...
William Goossen’s theory can be applied in nursing practice to develop nursing informatics skills and knowledge, as well as develop technological system competencies among nurses to collect, process, retrieve and communicate pertinent information across health care organizations (Goossen, 2000). This theory is highly applicable in addressing matters related to electronic health records, which are currently characterized with issues of privacy and confidentiality in relation to storage, retrieval and reproduction of patient health information. The model also provides broad applicability in guiding research at any clinical setting and contributes to the discipline of nursing by simplifying and enhancing documentation and storage of patient’s health information and by allowing better utilization of nursing resources (Elkind, 2009).
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