My professional position regarding patient confidentiality
Patients’ data are crucial in the delivery of quality healthcare. Patients disclose their information to healthcare professionals because they trust them with their private medical information. My professional position regarding patient confidentiality is that it should be maintained all the time as healthcare providers aim to offer quality healthcare to patients. If healthcare professionals think that they cannot maintain patient confidentiality, then they have to inform the patient and explain the circumstances.
Ethical implications of a breach of confidentiality
The nurse in the article promised the two 14-year-old girls that she would keep their medical information confidential. However, one of the minors has been diagnosed with human papillomavirus and cervical cancer (Nathanson, 2000). An ethical dilemma arises because the nurse wants to break the promise by informing the minor’s parents about their daughter’s health condition. In addition, the nurse wants to inform the girl’s school about her condition (Nathanson, 2000). Breach of patient confidentiality has ethical implications that may impact a healthcare worker or organization. When a healthcare worker fails to uphold patient confidentiality, he or she shows disrespect to the autonomy of the patient. The principle of autonomy allows a patient to choose the care he or she wants. From an ethical point of view, breach of patient confidentiality is betrayal. This would be the case because, in most cases, a patient and a healthcare professional enter into some form of agreement that requires the professional to maintain confidentiality (Esterhuizen, 2006). Therefore, if a patient’s medical information is not held confidential, then he or she would be betrayed. Nathanson (2000) notes that breach of patient confidentiality may lead a patient to lose trust in a healthcare provider or the whole healthcare organization. The lack of trust could make a patient not tell his or her problems to healthcare professionals because he or she thinks that the information would not be kept confidential (Nathanson, 2000). Trust is a key component in nursing ethics because it helps patients to disclose their feelings and past medical situations to nurses and other healthcare workers (Nathanson, 2000; Esterhuizen, 2006).
Ethical theories and/or ethical principles
Many ethical theories and principles are applied by healthcare professionals to critically solve ethical dilemmas in medical situations. The consequentialist ethical theory requires healthcare workers to act morally so that they would maximize patient outcomes. This theory does not support any harm to a patient. Therefore, my position is that healthcare workers should aim to produce good healthcare outcomes for the greatest number of patients (Fry & Johnstone, 2002). The theory of deontology is used in healthcare settings to emphasize the intentions of a healthcare worker. The theory concentrates on obligations and rules in the workplace. Thus, it is expected that healthcare workers would maintain patient confidentiality by adhering to obligations and rules. The theory of virtue ethics places value on socially acceptable virtues. For example, nurses and other healthcare professionals need to be honest, trustworthy, and kind. By virtue of healthcare doing the right thing, it would be expected that patient confidentiality would be maintained within healthcare organizations (Esterhuizen, 2006).
Maintaining patient confidentiality is also based on various ethical principles. First, the principle of beneficence requires healthcare professionals to do good to patients by offering the best quality healthcare. Second, the principle of non-maleficence prohibits healthcare providers from causing harm to patients. Third, the principle of autonomy is used in nursing ethics to give patients the liberty to express their views on the best care they would want. Fourth, the principle of truthfulness requires healthcare workers to be honest when dealing with patients and their medical information. Based on these principles, healthcare providers should act professionally to offer care to patients and maintain patient confidentiality (Fry & Johnstone, 2002).
A framework for ethical decision making
The four principles of the biomedical ethics framework would be used to make ethical decisions for the dilemma in the article. The framework is based on four principles. First, the principle of beneficence would be utilized to make an ethical decision for the dilemma by balancing the risks and benefits of disclosing the patient’s cervical cancer and STD status (Nathanson, 2000). Second, the principle of non-maleficence would be used to prevent causing harm to the minor by disclosing her medical status (Nathanson, 2000). Third, the principle of justice would inform the nurse to handle the medical information about the minor in similar ways she acted in the past. Fourth, the principle of autonomy would be used by healthcare workers to obey the decision made by the minor not to inform anyone about her medical condition (Fry & Johnstone, 2002).
The framework is significant in the ethical dilemma because it uses four principles that are commonly used in healthcare organizations to promote the quality of healthcare and maintain patient confidentiality (Fry & Johnstone, 2002).
Ethics committee
An ethics committee might use ethical principles, theories or a combination of both to find solutions to the ethical dilemma presented in the article (Fry & Johnstone, 2002). The committee would analyze the dilemma using the four main principles in healthcare: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. The committee would apply the theory of deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics. For all the theories and principles, it would list the benefits and risks associated with each approach. It would adopt an approach that causes the least harm to the patient.
In conclusion, the article presents one of the many cases of ethical dilemmas that are witnessed within healthcare organizations. Healthcare professionals are expected to use ethical theories and principles to find the best ethical decision to deal with ethical dilemmas in healthcare settings.
References
Esterhuizen, P. (2006). Is the professional code still the cornerstone of clinical nursing practice?. Journal of advanced nursing, 53(1), 104-110.
Fry, S. T., & Johnstone, M. J. (2002). Ethics in nursing practice: a guide to ethical decision making. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Science.
Nathanson, P. M. (2000). Bioethics on NBC’s ER: Betraying Trust or Providing Good Care? When is it okay to break confidentiality? Web.