Maintaining Patient Confidentiality

Maintaining confidentiality is one of the fundamental components every health care professional must follow. It is both a legal and ethical responsibility of a health professional to understand the importance of maintaining client confidentiality. Learning to establish a balance between maintaining personal protection and administering efficient health care can be a difficult task.

According to the New Zealand Code of Ethics, Confidentiality is applied to any ‘written or spoken information, or of observed body language, acquired through privileged access.’ (New Zealand Nurses Organisation, 2010). Any information acquired during communication with a patient about their condition, treatment, plan or any matters about their private life, should

An example of when patient confidentiality was jeopardised was with a patient on the ward who had end stage renal failure secondary to renal cancer. Any medical condition is a private matter, but a condition such as cancer can be a very personal. Cancer diagnosis can lead to extensive invasive questions and further invasive procedures. This can make it hard to maintain patient privacy whilst caring for this patient. One of the nurses began discussing information about the patient during her break to a fellow nurse. This violates the ‘Code of health and disability services consumer rights’. Right 1 states that the consumer has the right to be ‘treated with respect and have his or her privacy respected.’ (Health and Disability Commissioner, 1994). By sharing information with a fellow colleague in a social context, it breaches the patient’s right to confidentiality. Permission was not received from the patient to have information shared and the information was not to be shared unless on a need to know basis. A big aspect of gaining this trust is physically talking to the

Informing the patient is a vital part of providing adequate health care. With reference to the ‘Health information privacy code rules, the patient has the right to know why information is being collected, who will have access to the information, that they have the choice to disclose information and what will happen if their information is not disclosed.’ (Privacy Commissioner, 1994) If the patient does not know why you are collecting data, they are less likely to disclose information and therefore the trust relationship is not formed. Health care professionals also need to be ‘mindful of the privileged nature of being able to gain access to client information. (New Zealand Nurses Organisation, 2010). Many individuals will not disclose information to their family, but entrust in a stranger to keep their information private. Health care professionals need to respect this