CONFIDENTIALITY

1. Nurses are ethically committed to a nonjudgmental attitude, to honesty, and to protecting the confidentiality and the right to privacy of the patient.
2. Patients often confide highly personal information to nurses, trusting them not to divulge that information carelessly.
3. Patient names should never be used when writing nursing care plans or presenting case studies, except when these care plans are recorded directly in the patient’s chart and are used as a basis for ongoing patient care. Instead, the patients should be referred to by their initials to conceal identity.
4. Any information seen or heard concerning a patient’s diagnosis, condition, treatment, financial or personal status must be held in absolute confidence.
5. Details of a patient’s history or status should not be discussed in elevators, restrooms, cafeterias, on social media, or in any other public place. Discussing a patient’s medical history merely for the sake of gossip is highly unethical and unprofessional and may result in dismissal from the nursing program.
6. When the clinical experiences terminate, the need to respect the client’s confidentiality does not end.
7. Under no circumstances should a student photocopy or screenshot any part of the patient’s record.