Importance Of Confidentiality In Nursing

Due to the nature of nursing field, nurses may face different circumstances and dilemmas that might require good decision making or choosing from alternatives to meet the best outcome that go with the patients ' wellbeing, comfort and wishes. As a consequence, nursing practice requires a framework that known as "ethics" which regulate and guide nursing actions to achieve these goals (Curtis and Benjamin 2010). In view of the fact that nurses notice, observe and attend to a lot of patient 's information, it is necessary to maintain them private. Also, nurses need to understand the importance of confidentiality and how to enhance and protect patients ' confidential information. The objective of this paper is to discuss the importance of confidentiality and describe its significance as an ethical principle during providing nursing care for individuals in the clinical setting.

As said by Curtis and Benjamin (2010) nursing ethics is the moral behaviors, principles and values that direct the nursing actions and responsibilities in

Nurses have a vital responsibility toward maintaining confidentiality. In accordance with Atkins et al. (2014) nurses must be vigilance toward the guidelines, policies that regulated by the law or organization regarding the limits, amount and methods of communicating patient 's information to others. Furthermore, Fry et al. (2010) assert that seeking and disclosing information must be based on the need to know, which means the nurse must only take and record the information that is important in delivering the best nursing care. Also, not disclosing information to others such as colleagues unless it is safer and required for the patient 's wellbeing or as patient 's request for example communicating patient 's confidential information to the family members as patient 's wishes (Fry et al. 2010). In addition, Waller (2014) states that the nurse can disclose patients confidential information at times when it is necessary to