NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

Student: Talha Zafar
Student number: N01028676
Date submitted: September 30, 2015
NURSE 217: Legal and Ethical
Professor: Nadine Janes
Humber College

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

Introduction:
Patient confidentiality: Allowing the healthcare
professionals access to the electronic system which holds all patient's
information a blessing; or should the level of access be restricted to
the healthcare professional's unit and/or the patient directly under their
care? Four hospital clerks caught snooping in patient files, an article
published in the Star outlines patient confidentiality breaches perpetrated
by four healthcare professionals. Theresa Boyle (2015) explains that the
breaches of 52 patients information occurred at Soldiers Memorial
Hospital, which were discovered in a routine hospital audits and were

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

reported to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of
Ontario. The main reason for snooping in all cases was found to be
curiosity; however in a few small cases, the healthcare professional was
related to the patient (Para.2-6 & 8). This is a growing problem that plagues
almost all healthcare facilities. One of the causes, perhaps even a primary
cause of this problem is linked to the predominantly used information
storing and accessing system. The information accessing system currently
in use allows access to confidential information to almost all healthcare
professionals; even if the information is not under the jurisdiction of a
certain professional. So I ask again, is giving liberal access to confidential
information simply to satiate the curiosity of the professional a good thing;
or should the access be limited to the information of the healthcare
professionals patient? I believe that all patient related information should
only be available to the healthcare professional who are directly involved in
the circle of patient care. This can be achieved by passing/amending
legislation which would enforce all health care facilities to implement a
need to know based information accessing system. This type of restriction
would prevent snooping out of curiosity from occurring and makes
confidential information secure.
Element:
As a nurse, we are bound and obligated to up hold and follow
standards and laws which are in place to protect the public. Confidentiality

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

involves keeping personal information private. All information relating to
the physical, psychological and social health of clients is confidential, as is
any information collected during the course of providing nursing services.
(College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009, p.7). We know which type of
information is considered confidential, so then why have there been so
many breaches of confidentiality in the past? Professional curiosity,
eagerness to learn and familial relations have been the major blame in the
past. Some or all of these reasons may seem valid to some people, but in
reality they violate the standards and laws that are set in place to protect
the patients right of confidentiality. Professional curiosity and eagerness to
learn are valid as long as it pertains to healthcare professionals patients; or
if patient has given their consent to another healthcare professional not
involved in the care. In case of the nurse or a healthcare professional being
related to the patient, the patient is once again the consenting authority.
There is also a third possibility when a healthcare professional may be
given access to patients information and that is when the said professional
is being officially consulted. Aside from these exceptions, professional
curiosity, eagerness to learn and familial relations should not influence us
into accessing or snooping into patients file even if we have access to
those files. The healthcare team includes all those providing care to the
client, regardless of whether they are employed by the same organization.
(College of Nurses of Ontario, 2009, p. 3). Aside from the healthcare
provider who are directly involved in the patient care, no one should have

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

access to the confidential information; this avoids the question of
unauthorized access due to professional curiosity, eagerness to learn and
familial relations.
On the other hand, students are given access to confidential patient
information when they are in clinical practice. Even though students are
assigned one or at most two patients, they have access to the information
of all patients on the unit or the facility. From a learning stand point of a
student, it seem normal to access other patients files in order to
understand their state; and to increase ones knowledge of diagnoses, the
plan of care, correlation between diagnostic test results and patients
health/diagnosis, etc. It is crucial for a student or even a novice nurse that
they become familiar with as many cases in order to be knowledgeable.
Viewing different plans of care and unique steps taken to provide care can
broaden the student nurses own view. As a student, having access to
confidential information can be a good learning tool as long as the said
student maintains and follows the confidentiality documentation signed
prior to the clinical placement. All of this sounds very nice and tidy on
paper; however in reality, it hardly implemented. Physicians and students
reported discussing cases in situations in which most patients did not
expect this to occur. These included discussions at parties (36% v 9%) and
with spouses (51% v 17%), and identification of patients by name
(60% v 23%) (Weiss, 1982, p.1). Despite signing the confidentiality

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

agreement and being subject to laws and legislations, students/healthcare
professionals choose to divulge confidential information. This act defeats
the purpose of signing the confidentiality agreements. Perhaps they would
be deterred from doing so if they knew that only they could access to a
certain patients files, hence not to share the information with anyone else.
Is electronically stored information secure? The type of information
accessing system used in a facility is a factor that facilitates confidentiality
breaches perpetrated by the healthcare professionals. With electronic
records, there are unique and increased privacy risks. As noted,
unauthorized access to patients' personal health information appears to be
a growing problem (Tarshis, 2015, p. 1). Any information accessing
system that allows access to the information of all patients does harm
rather than being helpful. Having full access invites the healthcare
professional to fulfil their curiosity rather than deter it; regardless of the
fact that the healthcare professional has signed a confidentiality
agreement. As mentioned earlier, there are multiple reasons why
healthcare providers intentionally breach confidentiality; now the question
is what should be done in regards to this problem? Nurses safeguard client
health information by maintaining confidentiality and acting in accordance
with information retention and destruction policies and procedures that are
consistent with the standard(s) and legislation (College of Nurses of
Ontario, 2009, p.8). Maybe that is not enough, perhaps implementing a

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

legislation or law that requires a system that only allows access to patient
information to the personal who are directly involved in the care might be
the right answer.

Conclusion:
Finally I ask again, is giving free access to private information
beneficial or should the access be restricted to the information of patients
who are directly under the care of a professional? I think that the only
professionals who should have access should be the ones who are directly
involved in patients care. This can be implemented by emending/changing
legislation or laws. In addition, this would also prevent snooping out of
curiosity, keenness to learn and familial relations. The matter of patient
confidentiality breach has been and is a growing dilemma and a cause for
many disciplinary actions. It is high time that this issue is addressed and
change be brought to the information accessing system, which can
fundamentally deter breaches.

Reference:
Boyle, T. (2015, May 14). Four hospital clerks caught snooping in patient
files. The Star.

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay

Retrived from
http://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2015/05/14/four-hospitalclerks-caught-snooping-in-patient-files.html
College of Nurses of Ontario. (2009, June). Practice Standard: Confidentiality and Privacy
Personal Health Information. Retrieved from http://www.cno.org/Global/docs/prac/41
069_privacy.pdf
College of Nurses of Ontario. (2009, June). Practice Standard: Documentation, Revised 2008.
Retrieved from http://www.cno.org/Global/docs/prac/41001_documentation.pdf.
College of Nurses of Ontario. (2009, June). Practice Standard: Ethics. Retrieved from
http://www.cno.org/Global/docs/prac/41034_Ethics.pdf.
Humber College. [Humber Library]. (2014, November 12). APA in Minutes:
YouTube [video
file]. Retrieve from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=X4qrws8XCM8&index=9&list
=PLOjUhNG9PY-GI5hMLuxDQ2yyiCcdVJNa0
Tarshis, D., & Yun, S. (2015). Regulatory Colleges Respond to Health Privacy Breaches.
Canadian Privacy Law Review, 12(9), 1-2.
Weiss BD, (1984) Confidentiality Expectations of Patients, Physicians, and Medical Students.
JAMA, 247(19), 2695-2697. doi:10.1001/jama.1982.03320440043032.

NURS 217 Persuasive Essay