Case Study of an Ethical Dilemma
Added on 2021-06-14
11 Pages2699 Words243 Views
1Assignment 2: Case Study
2IntroductionThis paper will discuss the case of Sharni, who is a newly graduated nurse. Sharni is workingon the C5 surgical ward, where se sees Carla, who is from her mother’s group. Sharnibecome curious to know about Carla, even when Carla I not under her care. She accesses theCarla’s medical document without the permission of the registered nurse, who is responsiblefor the care of Carla. Carla has been admitted to the ward post-surgery of rupture ectopicpregnancy. After this incident Sharni posts a condolence message on the Facebook wall ofCarla. Therefore, this incident has resulted in creating many legal, ethical and professionalissues, as Sharni has crossed her professional boundaries, did not fulfilled the ethical andprofessional duties and also crossed legal boundaries expected from registered nurses.Therefore, this paper will discuss the legal issue, ethical issue and professional that occurredin given case scenario. Legal IssueAccording to the code of professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia, nurses have the legaland ethical duty to protect the privacy of the patient. According to the conduct statement 5“Nurses treat personal information obtained in a professional capacity as private andconfidential” (Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia, 2008, p. 3). Privacy andconfidentiality are the terms that are used interchangeably in nursing practices. According tothe legal requirement nurses have to ensure the privacy of the patient’s information, as theyhave the legal obligation of protecting patient information in order to protect patient’s respectand dignity (Privacy policy, 2014). The Common wealth Privacy Act of Australia is applied for protecting or regulating the use,collection, holding and disclosure of a private and sensitive information of a person.hePrivacyAct 1988 (Cth) regulates the use of personal and private information of the
3individuals all over Australia (Privacy policy, 2014). The health care practitioners inAustralia are under the core obligation of protecting and regulating the use of personalinformation of a patient. The health care professional in Australia are also required to protectthe private and personal information of the patient under the Health Practitioner RegulationNational Law Regulation. The nurses and other health professionals have the duty ofconfidentiality towards the patient and breach of such duty can lead to legal consequences forthe health professionals (Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Regulation, 2016).According to Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 No 71 (2018) also informsabout the fair and responsible handling of the health information and also require the healthcare professionals to use such information in a way that it does not affect the privacy of anindividual. The patient confidentiality policy also informs that health professional have the common lawduty of confidentiality that they owe towards the patients. The statutory duty ofconfidentiality is also considered under the Health Service Act (2016) (PatientConfidentiality Policy, 2016). According to the duty of confidentiality defined under thecommon law as well as under the statutory law, the health professional are required tomaintain the confidentiality and privacy of patient information that is directly or indirectlyacquired. In the given case scenario, Sharni acquired the patient information indirectly, butthis does not relieve her free from the duty of privacy of patient information. The duty ofconfidentiality and privacy extends to every person, who come in contact with theinformation (Patient Confidentiality Policy, 2016). Consent of the patient is equally important while using the patient’s personal healthinformation. Seeking patient consent is the very significant principle that is also at the core ofthe healthcare practice in Australia. The consent of the patient is very important in all aspectsof accessing or using information, as well as also for the providing medication or treatment.
4All the private health care providers have the obligation under the Privacy Act to obtain theconsent of the patient or their representative before accessing their health information orhealth records. The healthcare providers can collect the patient information only if the patienthas provided the consent or it is reasonably necessary in order to carry out some diagnosis ortreatment (Australian Government, 2018). However, in the given case scenario Sharni did notobtained the patient consent before accessing her health records. Sharni breached the duty ofprivacy and confidentiality and also duty of obtaining the informed consent under thecommon law and statutory law as well. However, in the case the legal duties towards privacyand consent of the patient were breached, as neither the health information was accessed withobtaining permission nor the consent of the patient was taken before accessing he healthrecords. Ethical IssuesAccording to the study of Hao & Gao, (2017) the nurses must always ensure that theymaintain the privacy and confidentiality of patient information. However, some times thenurses can use social media and post patient information that can result in breach of patient’sprivacy and can also result in creating ethical issues. The study conducted by Tuckett, &Turner (2016) also identified that new registered nurses are often unware of the code ofconducts, ethical principles of practice and social media policy due to which they use socialmedia ineffectively that also affects their practice and can create ethical and legal issues.Being unaware of the ethical principles and standards of practice can result in creating ethicalissues, as the nurses fail to take the appropriate actions in order to benefit the patient.The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses (2012) informs that respect towards the human rightsmust be inherent in nursing. The patients have the right to dignity and to be treated withrespect. Breaching confidentiality and privacy of the patient can be considered as the lack of
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