Law's Influence on Nursing Practice: A Study of Confidentiality Issues

This essay delves into the crucial intersection of law and nursing practice, specifically focusing on the concept of confidentiality and its profound impact on the decision-making processes of nurses. It highlights the ethical and legal dilemmas nurses face when balancing their duty of care to patients with considerations for their families and other obligations. The essay provides a critical analysis of relevant legislation, including the Human Rights Act, the Mental Capacity Act, and the Data Protection Act, to illustrate the legal framework within which nurses must operate. It emphasizes the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) guidelines regarding honesty, integrity, and the maintenance of patient confidentiality, which is legally grounded in case law. Furthermore, the discussion extends to the importance of respecting patient autonomy, the principles of consequentialism, and the legal ramifications of breaching confidentiality, including potential lawsuits. The essay also addresses the complexities of confidentiality in pediatric nursing and underscores the importance of effective communication and adherence to the Caldicott principles to prevent legal issues and uphold the reputation of healthcare providers. Desklib offers additional resources for students seeking to understand the legal and ethical dimensions of nursing practice.

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1NURSING
The impact of Law associated with the nursing profession
In this essay, the concept of confidentiality and the way by which law imposes an impact on the
decision making of nurses will be discussed and evaluated. Nurses are often found to face
dilemmas while making crucial decisions associated with the duty of care towards their own
families or healthcare service users. Apart from that, in this essay, critical analysis of relevant
legislature associated with the Human Right Act, Mental Capacity Act and Data Protection Act
will be also be performed. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) states that nurses need to
uphold their professional reputation by being honest and with integrity. Not only that, it is the
duty of each and every nurse to maintain the confidentiality of the healthcare service users who
are receiving care from them.
Confidentiality of healthcare service users is considered to be a legal requirement which is
obtained from case law. Case law is referred to the judicial decisions that are used as precedents
for future cases. The concern about confidentially arises in cases when the healthcare service
users share personal information with the healthcare service provider for treatment purpose.
According to Department of health, 2003, information shared between a healthcare service
provider and user falls under the "duty of confidence' and hence a fundamental trust must b
established between the doctor and the patient.
Hope et al., (2008) and Avery (2017) stated that healthcare service providers require respecting
the autonomy of the patients by valuing the dignity of that individual. It must not be ignored by
healthcare service providers that it totally depends on the patients if he or she wants to share his
personal information with the doctor for treatment purpose or not. Secondly, the fact that during
sharing the information, nurses are considered to be trustworthy by the patient must not be

2NURSING
ignored. Thirdly, coming to the theory of consequentialism, while making the decision, nurses
must opt for the decision that will be for greater good instead of making a decision with respect
to consequences which may be encountered by them in future (Avery, 2017).
The term confidentiality is legally defined as a set of personal and intimate information received
by the confident in a situation where it is not supposed to be disclosed for unauthorized usage.
The only time the disclosure of confidential information is legally accepted is when it is
disclosed by public interest to prevent some major harm and must be shared in a highly
professional manner (DOH, 2003). In spite of the fact that all healthcare professionals, as well as
service users, are liable of maintaining confidentiality (Delves-Yates, 2015), situations, where
the confidentiality of the patient has been discord, may arise. In such cases, the healthcare
service users can bring a lawsuit against the professional body (Avery, 2017).
According to the data protection act, information obtained from healthcare service users during
his treatment must not be used or disclosed for other proposes without the consent of the
healthcare service user. However, this information can be disclosed in cases of any legal
requirement or for the public interest. The common law allows sharing of confidential
information to prevent, investigate or punish serious crimes or abuse. Unauthorized disclosure of
information about any living individual is also prevented by this law. The standers are here to
ensure that all the personal data is protected against unlawful activities an information is
processed in a lawful and fairway.
According to the Human right act 1998, healthcare service users should be aware of the legal
requirements associated with confidentiality and peruse their practices keeping in accordance
with the national as well as legal policies. According to the mentioned act, a healthcare service

3NURSING
provider cannot keep any photograph of the patient or his/her family which has no relevance
with the treatment, or discussing the issue of the patient in an inappropriate place or leave
records of patients either hardcopy or electric unattended (HRC, 1998).In a case study, Delves-
Yates (2015) has discussed a case study which is about a group of students who have just
completed their ward shift. While on a bus, they were discussing their experiences while treating
patients. Their discussion was overheard by a close acquaintance of a patient and he immediately
had lodged complained against the students in the hospital. However, these case did not end up
in a lawsuit. Thus it can be understood that nursing students along with professional nurses are
also under the law of confidentiality. However, they pose the right to discuss their experience
among themselves provided that the time and the place are appropriate for such confidential
discussion.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2015) states that nurses can effectively avoid
complaints related to the confidentiality issue by developing respect for the privacy as well as the
confidentiality of the patient and communicating effectively with the patient if there is a need of
third party disclosure. According to Caldicott principles, the duty of sharing information is as
much essential as maintaining the confidentiality of the patient (IGA, 2016). For instance, in case
a patient is suffering from HIV, it is the responsibility of the nurse to disclose this information to
his or her partner to prevent life risk. Failure of sharing such crucial information can lead to
making the nurse negligent of his or her duty (Johstone, 2004 cited by Avery, 2017).
The duty of confidence is not restricted to adult health care service users only and also involves
children. According to the Family Law Reform Act 1969, children of age range 16 to 18 years
has the right of giving consent for any medical or dental treatment. Along with that, the Mental
Capacity Act 2005 states that child patients should be treated just like an adult patient until and

4NURSING
unless they are proven otherwise b parents or court. Hence it can be understood that paediatric
nurses need to give equal importance to the confidential information gathered from children.
Some children may feel it more convenient to share information to the nurse rather than their
parents in such cases the nurse must keep all the information confidential unless the children are
incompetent and the information posses a threat to the child or to the public.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that nurses should always remember that public
is aware of their human right and the right to have a good quality healthcare. Hence, nurses must
follow the MNC code of practices and policies. Apart from that, it is crucial for nurses to
communicate effectively with patients when it comes to discussion about the confidentiality of
the patient. Effective communication does act as a measure to prevent lawsuit and loss of money
as well as reputations for healthcare service providers.

5NURSING
Reference List
Avery, G (2017). Law and ethics in nursing and healthcare. 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications
Ltd.
Benbow, W & Jordan, G (2017-18). A Handbook for Student Nurses: Introduction Key Issues
Relevant To Practice. 5th Ed. Banbury: Lantern Publishing Limited.
Caulfield, H. (2005) Vital Notes for Nurses: Accountability. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Delves-Yates (2015) C. Essentials of Nursing Practice. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Department of Health (2003) Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice. www.dh.gov.uk (accessed
February 2017)
Griffith, R. and Tengnah (2017). Law and professional issues in nursing. London: Sage
Publications Ltd.
Hendrick, J. (2010) Law and Ethics in Children’s nursing Chichester: John Wiley &Sons.
Johnstone, M.-j. (2004) Bio-ethics: A Nursing Perspective. Sydney, NSW: Churchill Livingstone
Elsevier.
NHS. (2003). NHS Code of Practice.pdf Confidentiality.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/200146/
Confidentiality_-_NHS_Code_of_Practice.pdf. (accessed February 2017)
Information Governance Alliance (IGA) (2016) Records Management: NHS Code of Practice for
Health and Social Care. https://digital.nhs.uk/article/1202/Records-Management –code-of-
Practice-for-Health and-Social-Care-2016

6NURSING
Nursing and Midwifery Council (2015) the Code: Professional Standards of Practice and
Behaviour for Nurses and Midwives. London: NMC.