Importance of Confidentiality and Ethics in Healthcare

Importance of Confidentiality and Ethics in Health chargeSara LanCase ThreeConfidentiality protection is an essential agent of a enduring-physician relationship. Only in a setting of trust bath patients feel comfortable sharing personal feelings and sensitive breeding regarding their wellness with their health c atomic number 18 providers. Having access to confidential health services is particularly important when the patients are adolescents. This is particularly because the checkup examination care needs of adolescents quarter often conflict with the opinions and values of their family members. Therefore, adolescents are less likely to look for health check exam treatment if they fear that the selective information they share with their medical care providers might be disclosed to their families. On the other hand, this fear whitethorn overly cause adolescents to withhold certain information from medical professionals which ass create problems in providing accurate diag noes. Thus, medical care providers should do everything they dismiss to appraise adolescent patients confidentiality unless the patients are at signifi jackpott risk of harming themselves or others.Confidentiality is linked in to several bioethical teachings, including the principle of respect for patient autonomy, the principle of beneficence, and the principle of nonmaleficence.Within bioethics, the principle of respect for patient autonomy is ordinarily associated with allowing certain and competent patients to make their avouch selects regarding their medical treatments (15). Meanwhile, confidentiality is respecting a patients right to control the information relating to his or her bear health. magic spell these concepts generally refer to adult patients, adolescents of cadences age are presumed competent to make medical choices for themselves. Unless the law implores otherwise, a competent small(a) can live with to medical care without involving the patients parents. In this particular case, turn on has good reasons for his reluctance to disclose the information that he has shared with the medical team to his parents. Bill mentions that his parents constitute explicitly uttered their views against aforesaid(prenominal) sex marriages and negative opinions about gays and lesbians. Therefore, in respecting Bills confidentiality and keeping information about Bills sexual orientation a secret, the medical team is acting beneficently. At the same time, disclosing the information to Bills parents presents the potential for harm. For instance, Bill whitethorn face rejection from his parents as a result and this may cause his depression to worsen. Thus, maintaining confidentiality can also be seen as acting in the principle of nonmaleficence.Concerns with regards to Bills competency may arise collectible to his past suicide attempt. In cases involving minors who do non have the capacity to make their own health care decisions, parents ar e generally the default surrogate-decision makers (94). Consequently, some peck may argue that Bills medical decisions should be opinionated by his parents. Furthermore, by invoking the best interest standard, they might add that well-read all relevant information is necessary in determining what treatments are most beneficial for Bill. This can be justified if Bill is deemed unequal to(p) of making his own medical decisions then his parents may need to receipt about the causes of his depression in order to decide what specific types of medical treatments he needs. However, based on the sliding collection plate model of competency, I argue that Bill does in fact have the competency necessary to make his own health care choices. According to the sliding scale of competency, medical treatments that are highly beneficial with relatively small risks require a low level of competency to provide informed consent (90). Bills treatment curriculum fits into this category quite well. Furthermore, due to the highly therapeutic nature of these types of treatments, a presumption of competency holds when a patient agrees to treatment because the patient is making a rational choice (90). Although Bills competence may be questioned again when medical treatments involving higher risks are involved, he is shut away capable of making his own decisions about the treatment plan that is offered to him at the moment.While it is important to respect a patients autonomy and confidentiality, the medical team should still encourage conversation mingled with adolescents and their parents. When an illness strikes a member in the family, it not only affects the patient, but also the patients family as a whole. For that reason, in Bioethics for Clinicians Involving Children in Medical Decisions, the writers proposed a family-centred approach which takes into consideration the burdens and the benefits for all family members, as well as their responsibilities toward each other (93) . Since family members can provide much-needed give during the patients illness, medical care providers should evermore encourage communication between a minor and his or her parents. If Bill agrees to it, the medical team can speak to his parents about his treatment plan in more general terms. For instance, adolescence can generally be a difficult time for many heap. Being the transition pointedness between childhood and adulthood, there are unique challenges and struggles that exist in this stage of life such as developing a personal identity. Therefore, it is not uncommon for adolescents to seek therapy and counselling for one reason or another. For the same reasons, schools also have counsellors to guide and help adolescents deal with these issues in life. By framing Bills treatment plan in this way, the medical team is able to provide a way for Bill to overtake and obtain support from his parents while he undergoes treatments without disclosing Bills secret.It may be objec ted that withholding tax information from Bills parents is the same as be. This objection is understandable since certain information does in fact have to be withheld when discussing Bills treatment plan with his parents as a means to protect Bills confidentiality. Nevertheless, the motivations behind lying and righteous acts of withholding information are fundamentally different. For this reason, I argue that lying and moral acts of omission should not be viewed as equal. In When self-determination Runs Amok, author Daniel Callahan also speaks of the moral differences associated with stopping life-sustaining treatments with informed consent and active forms of killing, such as a lethal jibe (345). Clearly, lying and active forms of killing are motivated by maleficence. separate the other hand, stopping life-sustaining treatments with informed consent and moral acts of withholding information are based on medical professional duties. Ultimately, should the medical team lie to p rotect Bills confidentiality? The answer is no. Under no circumstances should the medical care providers lie. After all, no one would be willing place their health and well-being in the hands of medical professionals who are capable of dishonesty. Meanwhile, moral acts of omission are justifiable when disclosing full informationwill very likely cause predictable harm. Generally, people find the latter to be acceptable.If Bills depression does not improve with treatment and he is at significant risk of harming himself again, confidentiality may be justifiably breached. The medical should convey their intention to breach confidentiality to Bill before notifying his parents of his risk of harm to himself. However, it should be noted that it is not earmark for the medical team to disclose information about Bills orientation if he does not wish for that information to be disclosed. It may take years before Bill feels comfortable sharing this information with his parents. Ultimately it i s up to Bill to decide when he is ready. For the time being, the medical teams role is to encourage a healthy support network between Bill and his family as well as to suss out that Bill has a confidential environment for his health care needs. whole works CitedGedge, Elisabeth (Boetzkes), and Wilfrid J. Waluchow. Eds. Readings in Health Care Ethics. 2nd ed. Peterborough Broadview, 2012. Print.