Ethics in Nursing Informatics
Legal, Financial, and Ethical Issues associated with Legislative Rules in Nursing Informatics
Nursing informatics is the area of expertise that incorporates the science of nursing with the information and knowledge management contributed from the practice of nursing. As the term suggests, this requires information accrual, which naturally refers to information acquired from individual patients in course of their treatment (American Nurses Association, 2015). However, in today’s world of technology, when patient records are maintained electronically, there is a fear that patients’ sensitive and private information might be misused or made public, without the patients’ consent. Thus, the idea of having a national center that has Electronic Health Record (EHR) of several people has been caused conflict and controversy over privacy concerns (American Nurses Association, 2015).
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which was introduced in 1996 is known to almost all nurses in the United States. It is meant to ensure that the patient data or information that has been a part of healthcare worker, nurse, or doctor and patient interaction remains confidential. Such information is accessible to only the patient or doctors and other medical workers with the patient’s consent and to the legal system, is the law rules that the information is essential for security purposes. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA) institutes provisions for data security and patient privacy as well as confidentiality and breach notifications. It is essential for healthcare centers and hospitals to have a proper encrypted system with auditing software that safeguards the patient information (American Nurses Association, 2015).
In addition, they must also inform patients about their right to privacy (American Nurses Association, 2015). HIPAA and PSQIA are indeed essential to ensure that the healthcare workers do not cross boundaries in their quest of science or for their personal need and in the process, harm patients’ interests. For instance, According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (2015), a non-profit organization that works to ensure consumer protection and awareness in the society, in the last 10 years, 4,608 security breaches in the healthcare system has caused in the breaching of 868,403,517 patient records.
However, many healthcare workers, in spite of their awareness of these legislative legalities, do not understand their implications. The fact remains that the seemingly regular act of collecting patient data and using it in a healthcare setup, something that should ideally be considered secondary to the actual healthcare provided, can cost a healthcare setup millions, when a small error is made or when some small accident occurs. Hospitals and healthcare centers become liable to pay millions of dollars, when patient information is mishandled.The HIPAA also protects the patients by ensuring that their private information is not used for commercial purposes (Croll, 2010).
Today, almost all industries make their customer information available to retailers, so that the trends in consumption can be used for manufacturing, marketing and sales. Naturally, the information available for medical purposes is sensitive data …
