Nurses receive a lot of negative attention in the media, the role of the nurse is quite frequently belittled and undermined. Nurses are often sexualized or shown to be only delegated by doctors through Hollywood films and television shows. With already having a hard time being taken seriously, real life incidents that are reported through new channels and articles also add to the negative light that is often cast upon nurses. Many incidents that are reported of privacy being breached are adding to the negative image of nurses. These incidents make nurses out to be snoops and to seem flighty.
In the College of Nurses of Ontario Practice Standard: Professional Standards it states that “nurses are responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions. They’re also accountable for conducting themselves in ways that promote respect for the profession” (2002). A major role for nurses which is often overlooked is maintaining patient privacy and confidentiality. Earning and maintaining a patients’ trust is vital in terms of being able to give them the best care possible. In the Practice Standard: Ethics it says that “a therapeutic relationship is based on trust, respect and intimacy and requires the appropriate use of power inherent in the care provider’s role”. The way to achieve a therapeutic relationship with a patient is to always honor the commitments you make to your patients, this will help build trust. Communication and boundaries are very important as well. You must always communicate with your patients but you also have to remember that there are boundaries. Patient confidentiality can be easy to be breach which is why the nurse must always remain mindful. Under no circumstances should patient information be shared with anyone other than the patient and involved health care providers, even if the family members were to ask, without informed consent, information cannot be shared. This applies to other health care workers as well, just because you are a health care provider does mean that you have any right to access patient files that you are not directly involved in the care of.
In May 2016 an article was published in the Hamilton Spectator by Joanna Frketich about a privacy breach at Joseph Brant Hospital. A nurse from a surgical floor at the hospital was viewing a patient file from the emergency department. To make matters worse it came to light that one nurse shared her access code for the electronic files with another nurse all of which is ethically wrong. You have a responsibility as nurse to ensure and promise to protect the privacy of your patients and of others, this means all of your documentation and files of the patient must be kept safe and only accessible to those involved in the care of the patient. Nurses are accountable for their actions and are responsible and follow a code of ethics, this means even if a nurse personally would like to see her own records, she has no right to access them herself without consent. Patient confidentiality is extremely important, nurses must be mindful not to discuss patients personal information in the lunch room, at the nurses station or anywhere where this private information may be heard by somehow not directly caring for the patient. When incidents like this come about and the public see it on the news it changes their view on nurses in a negative way. It will make people feel like nurses cannot be trusted or that boundaries are being crossed, which in this case they were. The man whose records were accessed, Olivier Rodd said “somebody hacked into my medical history. Some nosy Rosie wanted the nitty gritty” (The Hamilton Spectator, 2016). This man may never trust a nurse again, his opinion on nurses may now be forever skewed, trusting your nurse is vital to receiving the best care possible.
Frketich writes that “in 2015, a total of 42 snooping breaches were reported to Ontario’s commissioner but there is no way to know how many went unreported” (2016). This is very upsetting and unfortunately this came as no surprise. Through working in a hospital and being a patient myself I know that this does happen. I know that there are other reasons as well that nurses are sometimes portrayed in negative way through their behaviour. The lack of accountability and professionalism of some nurses in the workplace is horrifying but there are so many excellent nurses out there as well, it is devastating when things like things come to light. There are nurses who work hard to maintain the integrity of the job and then isolated incidents like this make nurses as a whole look bad. Nursing to me has always been a career that I looked at with highest amount of respect but it was incidents like these that I have seen on the news or experienced myself that actually ended up being my main reason for choosing this path. As a nurse I will always make sure that my patients are respected and protected.