Why is confidentiality important in mental health nursing?
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Why is confidentiality important in mental health nursing?
There is a duty of confidentiality on the part of mental health nurses when they handle confidential patient information. Nonetheless, it may be necessary to disclose confidential information of a patient if the patient is assessed as being a risk to self or others, to protect the patient or others from harm.
How does mental capacity link to confidentiality?
There may be times when you lack the mental capacity to make your own decisions about your information. This might be if you are very unwell. If you lack mental capacity professionals can sometimes share your information without your consent.
What is the legal relevance of patient confidentiality?
Patient confidentiality is protected under state law. If a patient’s private information is disclosed without authorization and causes some type of harm to the patient, he or she could have a cause of action against the medical provider for malpractice, invasion of privacy, or other related torts.
What legislation covers confidentiality?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016 regulates the use of this information (‘data’) to balance the individual’s right to confidentiality and an organisation’s need to use it. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016 replaces the Data Protection Act 1998.
What legislation relates to confidentiality in health and social care?
The Human Rights Act 1998 The Human Rights Act gives every individual the right to respect for their private and family life. This includes having any personal information held in confidence. This right, however, is not absolute and can be overridden if necessary, such as for a safeguarding concern.
How can nurses protect confidentiality?
The best way to maintain this confidentiality is to have the patient identify the individuals with permission to know PHI. If that’s not possible, a guardian or designated caregiver can point out those people. That way, nurses won’t accidentally share with the wrong visitor who they thought had authorization.
What principles of patient confidentiality might be an issue consider legal and ethical?
The key ethical principles involved in this case are justice and nonmaleficence. Justice calls for all patients to be treated fairly and to be able to expect that their private medical information will be held in confidence.
What are the principles of the Data Protection Act?
Broadly, the seven principles are :
- Lawfulness, fairness and transparency.
- Purpose limitation.
- Data minimisation.
- Accuracy.
- Storage limitation.
- Integrity and confidentiality (security)
- Accountability.
Is Data Protection Act a legislation?
The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which was passed in 1988. It was developed to control how personal or customer information is used by organisations or government bodies. It protects people and lays down rules about how data about people can be used.
Data protection legislation requires that the collection and processing of personal data is fair, lawful and transparent. This means there must always be a valid lawful basis for the collection and processing of data as defined under data protection legislation, and the requirements of the CLDC must also be met.