Question

"A secret spoken finds wings. - Robert Jorden, The path of Daggers"

How is the quotation related to patient confidentiality? What does the author mean by "wings"?

Answer 1

" A Secret spoken finds wings"

The author mean "Wings" as the disclosure/ sharing of confidential information about the patient to others intentionally or unintentionally. It means breach of confidentiality.

How the quotation refers to patient confidentiality?

"A Secret spoken finds wings" means a confidential information shared by a patient to his nurse becomes disclosed to the other health care provides/ patients family members when the nurse shares or leaked out it with them for non therapeutic purpose.

Patient confidentiality is one of the most important pillars of medicine. Protecting the private details of a patient is not just a matter of moral respect, it is essential in retaining the important bond of trust between the health care provider and the individual.

This often is essential in treating ill-health and, without it, patients would be hesitant about revealing information about themselves or family members for fear that it could leak out and affect their reputation, lifestyle, employment or personal relationships.

Confidentiality is one of the core duties of medical practice. It requires health care providers to keep a patient’s personal health information private unless consent to release the information is provided by the patient.

Patients routinely share personal information with health care providers. If the confidentiality of this information were not protected, trust in the physician-patient relationship would be diminished.

Maintaining confidentiality may also increase the patient’s willingness to seek care.

For conditions that might be stigmatizing, such as reproductive, sexual, public health, and psychiatric health concerns, confidentiality assures that private information will not be disclosed to family or employers without their consent.

The obligation of confidentiality prohibits the health care provider from disclosing information about the patient's case to others without permission and encourages the providers and health care systems to take precautions to ensure that only authorized access occurs.

Appropriate care often requires that information about patients be discussed among members of a health care team; all team members have authorized access to confidential information about the patients they care for and assume the duty of protecting that information from others who do not have access.

Unintended disclosures may occur in a variety of ways. For example, when pressed for time, health care providers may be tempted to discuss a patient in the elevator or other public place, but maintaining privacy may not be possible in these circumstances.

Similarly, extra copies of handouts from teaching conferences that contain identifiable patient information should be removed at the conclusion of the session in order to protect patient privacy. The patient's right to privacy is violated when lapses of this kind occur.