Nurse’s responsibility to protect patient information
Nurses adhere to numerous legal and ethical standards that define their role towards patients and the community. Nurses are responsible for keeping patients information safe and confidential. Health organizational policies, federal laws, and state regulations all have a common goal of ensuring the nurse protects patient confidentiality. Additionally, under no circumstances should the nurse allow another person other than the patient or a person authorized to access the information by the patient unless when asked to do so by the law (McGowan, 2012).
Impact of HIT on protecting patient privacy
The introduction of Health Information Technology (HIT) aim at streamlining activities in the healthcare sector including safeguarding patient’s medical health records. Health organizations can easily keep the patient’s medical information safe and secure by enabling different forms of authentications that limit other users from accessing the information without the owner’s permission. However, the high rate of cyber crimes and lack of trust in healthcare professionals renders HIT ineffective in protecting patient privacy. Despite the advice by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experts to use strong authentications such as two-step authentication and strong passwords, hackers continue terrorizing patient by accessing their private medical information. Such activities question the effectiveness of HIT in protecting privacy of patients if other people can easily gain access.
Security or ethical issues related to the use of portable devices to store information
The advancements in technology lead to the introduction of sophisticated devices that people use to store and transfer information from one gadget to the other. Portable drives such as the flash disk, memory cards, and smart phones introduce many ethical concerns. According to Goodman (2010), the increasing use of HIT tools in clinical care brings about ethical and legal issues related to the applicability of such tools in protecting patient’s confidentiality. Nurses can use portable devices to retrieve patient information from the hospital database and transfer it to another system without the patient realizing. The activity is unethical according to the nurses’ ethical and legal guidelines but the device makes it easier for the nurse to transfer information unnoticed.
Strategies used to safeguard patient information
HIT experts provide a list of strategies that healthcare organizations use to safeguard patient health information. The organization engages in promoting information privacy by keeping the organization electronic database secure. The use of strong authentications and restricting people entering the hospital database helps safeguard patient information.
The organization needs improvement in the nurse-patient relationship especially when the patient puts all the trust to the nurse to an extent of sharing crucial personal information. Nurses end up taking advantage of the situation to access and share patient’s personal information without the user’s approval. The application of the Nationwide Privacy and Security Framework for Electronic Exchange helps address such issues and offer lasting solutions. The framework addresses the situation by solving challenges experienced by patient concerning the privacy of their information by restricting access to information (Health IT, 2013). It provides users with special authentications in form of a personal identification number or a password.
References
Goodman, K. W. (2010). Ethics, information technology, and public health: New challenges for
the clinician-patient relationship. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 3891), 58-63.
Health IT. (2013, Jan. 18). Privacy Security & Policy. Nationwide Privacy and Security
Framework for Electronic Exchange. Retrieved 13 April 2016, from https://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/nationwide-privacy-and-security-framework-electronic-exchange
McGowan, C. (2012). Legal Issues: Patient’s confidentiality. Critical Care Nurse, 32(5), 61-64.
