How Healthcare Workers Can Best Merge their Responsibilities to Protect Patient's Privacy

Privacy and Confidentiality of Information in Health Sector
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Privacy and Confidentiality of Information in Health Sector
How best to shield the confidentiality of health care information is a complex and contentious subject that raises some of the utmost uncertainties about unimpeded danger of information security. Resolution of this matter, however, is significant to the healthcare industry's use of information technologies to assess the improvements and efforts in the delivery of health care. Concerns about personal privacy in the background of medical information are not new, and it is not the first time that they have necessitated the attention (Erickson, 2005). Specifically, the patients often worry about their privacy which influences their ability to share information and consequently, the delivery of care efficiently and appropriately. Subsequently, the debate about the secrecy of medical information is often framed as a conflict between the privacy interests of individual consumers of health care and the information needs of the public and private health care units that provide these services. Therefore, confidentiality and privacy disputes arise in a wide range of scenarios and contexts (Rybowski, 2008). However, the study focuses on how health care workers can best merge their responsibilities to protect patient's privacy and maintain confidentiality in the case of criminal activity by the patient.
Applicable Principles and Ethical Theories
Principles: The principle of autonomy; encompasses the agreements to respect another's right to define a course of action individually. For instance, in clinical situations, health workers respect a patient's autonomy, where they allow the patient freedom of choice concerning medication (Butts, 2008). Next is the principle of beneficence. Refers to the desire to do what is right under all circumstances. In an act of beneficence, nurses will provide medication appropriately and timely (Erickson, 2005). Normal beneficence involves the mot...