Question

Chapter 5, Legal and Ethical Aspects

1.You are conducting an interview with a client and he reveals to you that he abuses his wife. He asks you not to tell anyone.

1. Would you be required to keep this client’s confidentiality or to share the information with someone?
2. How would you respond to the client?
3. How would you feel about a client sharing this information with you and what would you do with the information?

While giving report on a mental health client to another nurse, the nurse asks you, “What is the patient’s admission status?”

4. What is the difference between voluntary admission, emergency admission, and involuntary commitment?

An ethical dilemma is a situation in which moral and ethical principles conflict with one another.

5. Provide an example of an ethical dilemma that you might be faced with as a nurse.

4.Your nursing instructor has been teaching the class about the Nurse Practice Act, Standards of Care, and the ANA Code of Ethics.

6. How will the Nurse Practice Act and the ANA Code of Ethics influence your nursing practice?
7. How do standards of care protect the mental health client?

5. Your nursing instructor has paired you with a peer group and asked you to analyze ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, paternalism, veracity, fidelity, and justice in relation to the care of the mental health client.

8. Discuss each of these ethical principles.
9. How would your group incorporate each ethical principle into the care of the mental health client?

Answer 1

a.Would you be required to keep this client’s confidentiality or to share the information with someone?

Yes as per the professional, medical doctor-patient confidentiality practice any such information is bound by privilages and confidentiality and cannot be revealed to anyone. Even as per the HIPAA laws he patient data and related information cannot be revealed or shared with ayone one in terms of medical professional and ethicacl context

b. How would you respond to the client?

We respond tot he client that as per the doctor-patient confidentiality any informatio given by him to the doctor is provogilaged and as per the ethical and medical guildeines cannot be revealed. However in terms of ethical aspects, we advise the patient/ cient against the domestic violence and abuse and educate and counsel him on the same

c.How would you feel about a client sharing this information with you and what would you do with the information?

Revelaing such information by a client is inappropriate in the first place. The domestic abuse and treating the wife in abusive way in unacceptable in all cases. Personally i would prefer that the client not share any such personal and medically unrelated inforamtion with the nurse/doctor. This information under the privacy and medical ethical guidelines cannot be shared and I personally would not share or reveal it to anyone as it was shared in prvate and the client does not want this information to be public and we have to respect the requests of the client. By law even we cannot reveal any private and personal information to anyone (HIPAA privacy law)

While giving report on a mental health client to another nurse, the nurse asks you, “What is the patient’s admission status?”

In this scenario, the nurse is a part of the treatment and medical care team with the doctor (you). Therfore the treatment related information and requirement for admission for further treatment is to be informed to the nurse in order to initiate and provide clear nursing and treatment instructions. Therfore in this case the mental health report for the sake of information is to be given to the nurse and the nurse is also bound by th client privacy regulations, guidelines and laws in medical and healthcare professions.