Abstract

Most health institutions have been victims of a breach of privacy of the patients in their custody through miss conduct from nurses. The issue of misconduct is raising concerns on the kinds of training, especially on the ethics of health institutions. One of the causes of privacy challenges in such institutions involve the n increasing technologies that make an individual have access to simple means of sharing information. The use of smartphones, which are accessible to any individual today, even though they have prompted communication efficiencies in the institutions, they have led to damages that result to a breach of the right of individual patients. Nurses, tend to share information that is otherwise required to remain private, therefore making the profession lose its meaning. It is for this reason that the case study discussed focuses on the scenario of how nurses breach the privacy rule and therefore consequences for such actions in the health institutions.

 Keywords: Ethics, smartphone, social media, technology, privacy

We Can, But Dare We?

The coming of technological changes is of the issues that have brought complications in the privacy of individuals in their profession. Among the problems is the allowing of the social platform in workplaces to share information with friends and other public. Many companies and institutions have established strong rules that guide their client’s privacy and confidentiality. However, there are some events that such privacy and confidentiality are n breached based on the lack of awareness or principles that guides the social media platform and respect for individuals privacy. This discussion, therefore, responds to a case scenario of the nursing conducts during a night shift where she took a photo of a celebrity and shared it with a friend who in turn sold it to gossip magazine for cash. Thisdiscussion takes an ending of the nurse receiving a call from the gossip magazine which offers her $20000 for the photos. She accepts to sell them and decides to buy a new car for herself.

HIPAA, Legal, & Regulatory Discussion

This action is a total breach of the privacy of the patient. Health institutions have a policy that guides the confidentiality of information and the confidentiality of individual clients unless they are critically needed for the safety of the public (Dinev, Albano, Xu, D’Atri& Hart, 2016).  Nurses undergo training on the ethical issues that might lead to damage to the institution or the person profession, hence, they should not go against the set rules in such institutions. One of the significant problems that worry the health institutions is the use of a social network platform to reveal certain data and information about a patient, regardless of the stature of the individual.

A focus on the case study reveals that the nurse on duty happened to serve a musician who had a recent accident and also happened to be her fun (Nelson & Staggers, 2016). This makes her takes his indecent pictures and sent them to her friend to show that she met the musician in the hospital. Since the friend does not understand the ethical values of such information, she accepts to sell such pictures to the gossip magazine, therefore putting the hospital in risk of unprofessionalism and lack of both moral standards and respect for the privacy of the individual due to the indecent nature of the photo (Dinev et al., 2016). The analysis of this scenario, therefore, requires the ability to understanding of the factor that prompted the nurse to take the picture and whether it meant to cause damage to the individual or it happened by accident. Based on such analysis there will be a possibility to establish the moral and ethical obligation that the hospital had toward the incident.

Scenario Ending & Recommendations

The fact that the nurse accepted to share the photos to the gossip magazine is a lack of unprofessionalism, and therefore she is at risk of being withdrawn from the service. In this case, she went outside her professional duty to steal the information of the musician, including his demography, and other details in the health record that she shared to the public. According to ethical rules that guide the profession, such an act is illegal, and it may raise legal concerns to the individual or the institution. It is for the privacy mistakes that institution has been sued for sharing such detailed and private data that concerns a client with the public (Nelson & Staggers, 2016). Upon investigation, the individual nurse may be found guilty; therefore, disciplinary action must be taken against her. The musicians do also have a right to privacy based on his information, even though his life is public and that they are termed as public property. Such a report do not fall under the public concern; therefore, the hospital, especially the employees in such a facility must always remain discreet about the private health information about the health matters of the patient. In the case of photo sharing of the musician, Blue Lizard is to sue the hospital which will henceforth compensate him for their damage it has caused to him. Based on the investigation, the nurse on duty that night had to be the first suspect, and therefore she is likely to lose her license.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The effect of technology in the health institution is one that has always been linked with efficiency. The communication devices such as smartphones have always enabled doctors to connect. It has also allowed information share and knowledge expansion to the health institution. One of the ways it becomes useful is a case where a nurse consult from a team member who is not in the session for a particular clarification of how to handle a specific patient. This makes the smartphone an essential device that is required for efficacy in service delivery (Fernández-Alemán, Señor, Lozoya&Toval, 2013).  The existence of social media, however, their information spread and getting information becomes easy through communicating with a friend in and outside the profession makes another challenging concept to the health institutions. In this case, it has always been viewed as a breach of privacy, and therefore its use may be forbidden in the health institution. Having such a device in the hospital requires knowing the scope of their applications and preventing any potential risks that may emanate in using them.

Focusing on the incident of celebrities, their nature of public life makes them vulnerable and their information, upon sharing them to the public might lead to severe damage to their personality as well as their careers. Therefore, the effect of the action of the nurse to sell the photos to the gossip magazine creates a significant impact on the hospital (Fernández-Alemán et al., 2013). The move by the nurse was deliberate since she knew the implications of selling such information to the public. The taking of indecent photos of the patient for non-medical use is also a high level of breach of the legal settings of a medical institution. It, therefore, requires that the motivation of the nurse share such information result to wrong use of smartphone and the use of social media in the workplace. It, therefore, makes the fundamental reason for the hospital and the individual nurse is accountable for the breach of privacy act of the individual. It is unprofessional, and the extent of the damage is excellent.

There is a fundamental principle that governs the institution based on ethical conduct and the responsibility towards the patients. One of them is to act in the act of good faith. This requires health institutions to work for the interest of the patient by providing patient-centered care. In this case, any action taken in the institution should be to the best interest of the patient regardless of his or her position in the society. One of the restrictions that the hospital has towards the patient in their custody is the responsibility of the confidentiality. However, social media and advanced technology are becoming a significant challenge in ensuring that confidentiality. In this case, some policies have to be set to control the effect of technology on health institutions (Fernández-Alemán et al., 2013). One of them is the restriction on taking or sharing the information of the client without the approval of the institution upon the analysis of the damage it might result.

Accessing any health record information of the client should be based on medical use and not any other method that is not proved by the institution. For this reason, each institution should set its rules and regulations on the use of smartphone and social media in the health institution. Among such information is passing information to the public on an issue that would promote the health of the society. In this case, the platforms are to be used for educational purpose and enlightening the public on what to do in case of the presence of a particular disease that the medical institution has observed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the fact of breaching the information of the client in a hospital is one that has been brought by the current technology that allows for the faster spread of information to the public. This, therefore, requires the health institution to protect the clients from the technology of social media information and the data sharing for non-medical use. The damage that is always caused by information sharing, especially those information that is private explains the reason for the reason why medical institutions should restrict the use of smartphones in the institutions. Nursed should be aware of the consequences of their action and therefore reorganize their role in protecting the information of their clients.

References

Dinev, T., Albano, V., Xu, H., D’Atri, A., & Hart, P. (2016). Individuals’ attitudes toward electronic health records: A privacy calculus perspective. In Advances in healthcare informatics and analytics (pp. 19-50). Springer, Cham.

Fernández-Alemán, J. L., Señor, I. C., Lozoya, P. Á. O., &Toval, A. (2013). Security and privacy in electronic health records: A systematic literature review. Journal of biomedical informatics, 46(3), 541-562.

Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2016). Health Informatics-E-Book: An Interprofessional Approach. Elsevier Health Sciences.

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