NS406 Foundations of Nursing: Essay on Teamwork & Confidentiality

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the importance of teamwork in nursing, specifically focusing on how it relates to patient confidentiality. It delves into the ethical and legal aspects of maintaining patient privacy, referencing key legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 2018. The essay also discusses the role of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) code of conduct in guiding nursing practice and highlights the circumstances under which confidential information may be disclosed. A critical review of the article “Confidentiality and the duties of care” by C Chantler (2021) is included, emphasizing the legal and ethical obligations of healthcare professionals to respect patient confidentiality. The essay concludes by reinforcing the significance of teamwork in achieving nursing goals while upholding patient rights and data security. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Team Working In Nursing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
BODY OF ESSAY .........................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
In the health and social care sector the key nursing concepts which should be followed by
the nurses are confidentiality, advocacy, team working etc. One of the most important identified
nursing concept is confidentiality, this is referring to the information about the patient which
have to be kept secure and safe from the third person (Catania, and et. al., 2021). Team working
is the key nursing skill play important role in the management of nursing role such as health
improvement and management of patient confidentiality. In context to the nursing
confidentiality involves the sets of the rules and standards, which limits the access or places
restrictions on patient information. This topic is selected for this essay because privacy of the
information is considered under every task of the nursing care and support practices. That is
important to known about the confidentiality in nursing, in very detail. Within essay critical
evaluation and review of the peer reviewed journal article is done in context to the selected topic
confidentiality in the nursing. The selected article for the critical review of the selected topic
“Confidentiality and the duties of care” by C Chantler 2021. Main concept of the topic discus in
the detail along with the analysis of further academic sources relating to this topic, Consideration
chosen article is done along with the analysis of its evidence based.
BODY OF ESSAY
Team working contribute to the acceptability in the nursing and with the effective team
work effective patient care plan is can be managed and good outcome is can be achieved.
Another most important role of the team working is management of the confidentiality. The
principle of the confidentiality is about the privacy and respecting person wishes, this means
professionals should not share personal details about someone with others unless that person has
given permission, professionals in context to this responsibility are nurses, social workers,
doctors, support workers and employers. In the health care confidentiality means that the
professionals and practitioners should keep a secure and private between themselves and the
patient. Within the health care there are the many legal requirement are covering the
confidentiality need in context to the health care system (Tingle, 2021).
According to the Ellie Collier (2019) the value of the confidentiality is generally taken
from the common law, due to which this is called as the common law duty of confidentiality.
Privacy of information is important for encouraging individual to come forward with issues and
1

concerns, this can be managed with effective team work and coordination. The key legislations
which cover the rules and regulation related to the assurance of the confidentiality are The
human right Act 1998, The care act 2014 etc. Under the human right act 1998 people are
provided with the right of respect for their personal and family life. By the aid of this legislative
pieces individual personal information held confidence. The Data Protection Act 2018 is
including the key regulation related to the management of essential data within the organization.
On the basis of this care settings and provisions related to the clients, patients and employees
must make sure the protection of the patient data and follow the standard polices of the data
storage. The key principles of the The Data Protection Act 2018 , which helps to manage the
confidentiality of the patient information are lawful and fair processing of the information,
collection of the data should done with the specified purposes. Management of the information
should be accurate and up to date, information should not kept longer than is necessary.
Within the health and social care organization there are many uncertainties surrounding
confidentiality, such as the situation of the disclose confidential information. There are some
circumstances under which patient information confidentiality is can be disclosed, such as the
public interest, court order, patient own interest (Burkhardt and Nathaniel, 2019).
On the basis of the NMC code (2018) The nursing and midwifery council exists to
protect the public, registered nurses, midwives and nursing associates have to follow the values
and principles set out in the code. The NMC Code of Professional Conduct promotes the
importance of teamwork in nursing. That is the duty of the nurse to manage the confidentiality
of all those who are receiving care. All the nurses are likely to work co-operatively within group
and to respect the skills, expertise and contributions and support of colleagues. In order to
achieve the success in the management of the patients and service users confidentiality, nurses
have to respect the persons rights in all aspects of their care, make sure that peoples are informed
about that how and why information is used and shared by those who will be providing care
(Koharchik, and et . al., 2017). Nurses also have to make sure that they respect the person’s
right to privateers and privacy should continue after patient have died. Nurses have to share the
essential information with other health care professionals and agencies only when the interest of
service user safety and public security override the need for privacy.
According to the C Chantler (2021), selected article in context to the critical reviews of
the selected topic confidentiality in the nursing, health care professionals like health
2

professionals have to respect the patient confidentiality because that is their legal duty, this is
also the part of team working to achieve the health improvement outcomes by respecting each
other. Professionals have to enable the patient to decide how their data have to use and disclose
in the process of care, this is important in order to aid the effective participation of patient in
their own care plan. Confidentiality is rarely challenged in itself, this is accepted by the most
doctors and patients as one of the main planks of relationship of trust between doctors and
patients. On the basis of this article on the one hand the law appears to give patients right to
privacy and confidentiality. The human right act 1998 includes article section 8 the right to
respect for private life. In the other hand the data protection acts 1998 also involves the
individuals rights in terms of access to their data, their right to known how it will be sued and
control (Neville, 2017).
From the study of this topic various important factors, which have to be consider by the
nurses while working with the patient or service user are learned. Such as in context to the
specific nursing job role, key responsibilities related to the management of confidentiality are
recording and application of the information only if it is necessary. That is the nursing role to
access only the information they need and keep information and records physically and
electronically secure and confidential. That has been learned that rules and regulation related to
the confidentiality cover by the various legislations and it is related to the particular nursing filed
because nurses serve the patient with specific care and services under which they have to respect
the people right of respect, personal information security (Rentala, 2018).
3

CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that team working is very important as it
help to achieve the nursing goals with the management of key responsibilities like
confidentiality, that is in nursing is very important concept involves the management of patient
information secure and protected from the third person. There are the various legislative pieces
which illustrate the key rules and regulation in context to the management of the confidentiality
in health care, such as the human right Act 1998, The Data Protection Act 2018, etc. Nurses
have to make sure that they respect the patient right of the confidentiality and follow the code of
the conduct related to the nursing standards related to the confidentiality.
4

Appendix
Article summary
The article which is selected for the critical review of the content related to the chosen
topic “confidentiality in nursing” is authentic peer reviews in the 2021. author of the article is C
Chantler and the name of article is “Confidentiality and the duties of care” . This article is about
the confidentiality and duty of the care, illustrating the brief information about the key legislation
of the confidentiality and rights of the individuals, needs of the society and the public and patient
prospectives in context to the confidentiality. This article is relevant in context to this essay of
the chosen topic as this is involving the key inclusive factor confidentiality and nurses roles to
manage the confidentiality. This article is Copyright © 2021 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd &
Institute of Medical Ethics. All rights reserved.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Catania, G., and et . al., 2021. Lessons from Italian front‐line nurses' experiences during the
COVID‐19 pandemic: A qualitative descriptive study. Journal of nursing management, 29(3),
pp.404-411.
Burkhardt, M. and Nathaniel, A.K., 2019. Ethics & issues in contemporary nursing-e-book.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Neville, P., 2017. Social media and professionalism: a retrospective content analysis of Fitness to
Practise cases heard by the GDC concerning social media complaints. British dental journal,
223(5), pp.353-357.
Rentala, S., 2018. Basics in Nursing Research and Biostatistics. Jaypee Brothers Medical
Publishers.
Koharchik, L., and et . al., 2017. Promoting nursing students’ ethical development in the clinical
setting. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 117(11), pp.57-60.
Tingle, J., 2021. Giving essential content to the National Patient Safety Syllabus and curricula.
British Journal of Nursing, 30(12), pp.758-759.
Online
Confidentiality and the duties of care, 2021 [online] Available through
<https://jme.bmj.com/content/29/1/36>
A Guide to Confidentiality in Health and Social Care, 2019 [online] Available through
<https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/confidentiality-in-health-and-social-care/>
Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates,
2018 [online] Available through <https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-
publications/nmc-code.pdf>
6