Nurse Confidentiality

This includes reporting violence, abuse or neglect towards clients by other nurses and extends to reporting conduct involving third parties, including family members and other healthcare providers

Ethical issues have always affected the role of the professional nurse. Efforts to enact this standard may cause conflict in health care settings in which the traditional roles of the nurse are delineated within a bureaucratic structure. Nurses have more direct contact with patients than one can even imagine, which plays a huge role in protecting the patients’ rights, and creating ethical issues for the nurses caring for the various patients they are assigned to. In this paper I will discuss some of the ethical and legal issues that nurses are faced with each and every day.

Nurses rely on personal knowledge and their professional skills to provide ethical care (Creasia & Friberg, 2011). In everyday practice, nurses must balance the needs of their patients against those of the organization, society and themselves. They strive to deliver the highest level of care for patients, but adjusting for limited organizational and personal resources often requires difficult decisions. This paper explores the following scenario suggested by Maville and Huerta: “You are a nurse providing home care to a mother, and you suspect child abuse after observing the mother’s reaction to her child” (as cited by Arizona State University, 2014). When faced with a moral dilemma, a competent nurse incorporates ethical, bioethical and legal considerations. In the proposed story, incorporating the nursing ethics of advocacy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and collaboration will guide the nurse towards an appropriate and legal course of action.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is an organization with a strong ethical foundation. Nurses in general are known as an honest and trustworthy profession in the United States. This reputation was created because of nursing organizations like the ANA. In this paper the ANA’s goals are described and tied to their ethical principles. The role and importance of the ANA’s ethical values are explored. A discussion of the ANA’s culture and ethical decision making is described. The ANA’s ethical values and how they support author’s ethical views is explained and last the ANA’s social responsibility to the community.

Provision 8.1 of the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics denotes that health is a universal right. The provision states, “the nurse collaborates with other health professionals and the public to protect human rights, promote health diplomacy, and reduce health disparities” (Lachman, Swanson, & Windland-Brown, 2015, p. 365). From chapter 1, the ethical theory that best fits provision 8.1 is utilitarianism. The ethical theory of utilitarianism theorizes “one should act so as to do the greatest good for the greatest number” (Baillie, McGeehan, Garrett, & Garrett, 2013, p. 4). This theory promotes a universal method because it signifies that even if a decision is made and does not benefit every single person; however, benefits most

The Chapelhow et al. (2005) effectively portrays a framework that provides patients with an approach to person centered care. It provides health professionals with important aspects that allow them to perform in an effective way that has the best interests of the patients at heart. The characteristics it outlines are assessment, communication, risk management, record keeping and documentation, professional decision making and managing uncertainty.

Healthcare organizations are committed to providing clients with quality service and experience while promoting safety, health, and healing. Nurses have the biggest impact in providing safe client care and are known for their commitment in improving or increasing client health. However, this ethical commitment may not always be met due to breakdowns in healthcare delivery. Deviations such as adoption of unsafe practices or behaviors can lead to sentinel events. Any disconnects or disruptions can be a detriment to client care. This paper will present recent cases of witnessed breakdowns of facility protocols that have led to adoptions of unsafe nursing practices, discuss its impact to healthcare, and how it has affected my personal perspective on the issue.

Energized by the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding most of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the American Nurses Association (ANA) is continuing its wide ranging efforts to ensure that Registered Nurses (RNs) have an even greater role in providing high quality care as implementation of the landmark law progresses. As guiding principles, ANA contends that health care is a basic human right, and that all deserve access to essential health care services. As nurses witness every day, a lack of primary and preventive care can cause people's manageable chronic conditions to spiral, leading to poorer patient outcomes and increased overall health care costs. (Anonymous, 2012). According to Billings and Halstead (2012), nurses are poised to participate in transforming this nation's health care system. Participation requires nurses to possess political advocacy skills so that nursing voice is brought to the policy debates and policy development.

The report focuses on a fictitious character, no reference to place names, services or related publications that are not available in the public domain will be made. This is in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) code (2015) on confidentiality and anonymity. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1946). Therefore “health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions” (WHO, 2015). These determinants of health are best seen in the rainbow model of health, see appendix 1 (Dahlgren and Whitehead, 1991). The report focuses on Rob, see appendix 2, who lives in a shared house in a small town in South Wales which will not be named. Within the report the ways the nurse can help Rob will be discussed.

Compassion and respect is another ethical principle that a nurse must show for others that he or she comes into contact with, including the mother if suspected of child abuse.

This paper will an analysis one of the nine provisions found in the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics and compare it with the provision of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Code of Ethics. Both codes of conduct serve as guidelines for ethical and moral dilemmas registered nurses may face. They both offer vague statements allowing for interpretation which will ensure “merit the trust, confidence, and respect of healthcare professionals and the general public (American college, 2016).” This is why Americans view the nursing profession as one of the most honest (Winland-Brown, Lachman,& O’Connor Swanson, 2015).

The only way to miss the fact that your patient was physically or sexually abused is to not actually assess your patient. Certainly, sexual assault can be hidden under clothing; however, this can be assessed in other ways, such as talking to the client; especially in a psychiatric setting. Additionally, noticing any other changes in the client’s behavior could indicate that they have been involved in a traumatic event. The nurse must always be vigilant in assessing those under their care by any and all means available.

According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) states on the safeguarding and promotion of human rights pertaining to medical services in an essential function of the association. The nurses should be aware in the events where individuals have limited or diminished ability to exercise their rights and the ethical issues in particular the children, mentally disabled, and critically ill. (ANA, 2001).

Equity is being fair and impartial in dealing with people in anything. Example of equity is as a manager you need to be fair to all workers in your dealings as to work schedules.

This essay will discuss why confidentiality is important within nursing practice and the reasons why a registered nurse and student nurse are accountable and to whom they are accountable to in relation to patient care. It will further discuss patient’s rights in relation to law.