Privacy and Confidentiality

Privacy and Confidentiality

Maintaining privacy and confidentiality for patients is a fundamental duty of care as a nurse. It is clearly stated that "a nurse must treat personal information obtained in a professional capacity as confidential" (ANMC, 2003, pg. 4).

Although the terms privacy and confidentiality are often interchanged, they should be distinguished. Privacy refers to one's ownership of one's body or information about one's self, whereas confidentiality refers specifically to limits upon private information revealed in confidence, as a responsible promise that the information will not be revealed to others (Kerridge et al., 1998). It is essential that the data will be used and reported in such a way that no one is able to identify the source (Behi & Nolan, 1995).

It is important to uphold both the privacy and confidentiality of patients whilst in nursing care to protect clients against the morally harmful consequences that can occur when unconsented disclosures are made (Crisp & Taylor, 2005). For example, a client's newly diagnosed HB positive status could result in the client being rejected by family and friends and hence left without social support at a time when most needed.

The Privacy Act 1988 requires Commonwealth agencies to conform to a set of Information Privacy Principles when dealing with personal information. State and territory legislation also places similar obligations on their respective agencies, which includes hospitals (Crisp & Taylor, 2005). At common law, there are expectations that contracts will contain a confidentiality clause and tort will include a duty of confidentiality (Crisp & Taylor, 2005).

Under most circumstances information gained in the professional-client relationship should not be disclosed, however there is an exception if there