A 9 page research paper on confidentiality issues and ethics. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_khethco2.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
entails one of the most difficult ethical issues that nurses and other health practitioners have to face, which is when or if they should break their professional and ethical responsibility
to maintain patient confidentiality. The specific issue that is at the crux of the scenario is whether or not a nurse should agree to a husbands desire to find out
his wifes diagnosis, as he is aware of something is troubling her. Mrs. Z., his wife, has clearly stated that she does not wish to share any medical information with
her family. A biopsy shows that Mrs. Z. has a malignant breast tumor and that requires immediate treatment. The scenario also indicates that the nurse consults with the attending physician
and they use a model for ethical decision-making, and also review the limits of confidentiality and the issues of beneficence and harm, as indicated in professional codes of conduct, before
deciding on a course of action. The following paper will explore the steps that the scenario suggests were taken by the nurse and the attending physician, Dr. F., in regards
to Mrs. Z.s case. In doing so, the ethical issues associated with confidentiality will be discussed within a general framework, which will be followed by a more precise discussion of
the conflict between ethical principles that the case scenario entails. The steps that the nurse and Dr. F. may have followed in deciding on a course of action will be
then explored before offering final conclusions and recommendations. The importance of ethical theory to nursing The Code of Ethics formulated and published by the American Nurses Association (ANA) indicates
the centrality of ethical theory to the practice of professional nursing. The first tenet of this code states that nurses provide services that in accordance with both "respect for human