Issues of Confidentiality 

Confidentiality is a serious concern in the medical field. Physicians, nurses, assistants, as well as all other staff members must keep all information that the patient reveals private. With advancement in the technology field, privacy is becoming more difficult. A breach of confidentiality is when information is told about a patient to another person without the patient’s consent. A patient needs to know that they can disclose all information in regards to their situation and it will be kept private. The physician/patient relationship is based on trust. With this trust, the patient may disclose more information and the physician can better diagnosis the problem. A breach of confidentiality happened in the case of Dr. Orbit’s patient, Katrina Katt. Katrina was a popular television anchor, who had a sexual transmitted disease (STD). Sabrina, a medical assistant, asked Dr. Orbit’s nurse about Katrina’s visit. She also looked into Katrina medical file to see all of Katrina’s information. Sabrina had no reason to look at the file except for curiosity of what was going on with the anchorwoman. As a medical professional you are not granted full access to any file you wish to view. Sabrina should not have let her curiosity get in the way of her ethical duties. She even went further and emailed her husband the information who in turn tells others. Dr. Orbit’s nurse should not have disclosed any information to Sabrina. She should have let Sabrina know she would not violate her patient’s rights. But by her allowing this to happen, the nurse was responsible for the breach of confidentiality also Issues of Confidentiality Assignment