Patient's Right to Confidentiality

My chosen bill of right is “The patient has the right to every consideration of his privacy concerning his own medical care program. Case discussion, consultation, examination and treatment are confidential and should be conducted discreetly. Those not directly involved in his care must have the permission of the patient to be present”. Ethics is a branch of philosophy that focuses on thinking about morality, moral problems, and moral judgments. In our daily practice, ethical issues may arise when our views differ from activities that might jeopardize patients or that are outside standard practice. In general perception of nurse is that they favor patient’s right and they do advocacy for the patients, but if we see this issue in our socio culture it is generally observed that the nurse are the one taking care of patient during stay in hospital. So it is her responsibility to maintain privacy during any procedure.

On June10th, 2006, during daily round with my preceptor I use to maintain ward cleaning and uniformity. It is very difficult to maintain but we have to do it. In general ward we have five beds facing to each other. For our manager round we need to keep the curtain open. Otherwise our manger does not like it. According to her "nurses cannot observe the patients if they have covered with curtains". One of the mother said that she will not keep the curtain open. I requested her that please keep it open for some time and then just close it. After some time when I go back she again closed the curtain. When I asked her why she opens the curtains? She said that ok I understand that I need to keep the curtain open but I will not do it because there is male sitting just in front of my bed and I don’t feel comfortable. When I observed she was right. Out of five children two children were having their father as attendant.

After some time nurse on duty she open those curtains again while saying who is closing curtain I can’t observe all patients at one glance....