[ANSWERED 2022] Paul is a 12 year old male diabetic. He maintains his personal digital assistant (PDA), hand-held device, that interfaces with his glucometer and provides informatio

Module 3 Assignment

Please complete the following Professional Development exercises.

Read the following Ethics case.

Paul is a 12 year old male diabetic. He maintains his personal digital assistant (PDA), hand-held device, that interfaces with his glucometer and provides information based on inputted data from him and his parents. This information is transmitted to his MD/hospital, school nurse, case manager (CM), and to the parents’ home computer. All in an attempt to better control his diabetes. You are his CM.

The PDA sends an update to you since Paul’s blood glucose levels have been rising steadily for the last 5 days. The physician has left a message for you to contact this family and have them come in for an evaluation. You know that both of his parents work so you send an e-mail message to the parents’ via their home computer asking them to bring Paul in for an assessment. Since you are in a hurry and will be seeing other patients when they return from work, you decide to add more information to the message than normal reviewing with them the importance of maintaining control over the diabetes and expressing your concern since Paul has not checked in with you lately. You tell them that you think he might be over-doing it since he is trying to play football. You ask how they are doing and if they are still attending their counseling sessions.

Paul’s 4 year old sister, Lilah, sends your email out to all of the diabetic lists that both Paul and his parents belong. They interact with people on these lists regularly.

The parents are outraged that this information was sent everywhere. Imagine that you are the designated Privacy Officer in a healthcare institution.

Explain the following:

- How would you feel in this situation?
- What is the problem? (Clearly state the problem)
- What ethical principles would guide you in this case?
- What are the alternatives for solving this dilemma?
- What are the consequences for each alternative generated?
- In your opinion, what is the first choice from the alternatives and why?
- Does your choice take into consideration all of the persons involved and the consequences to each of them?
- If the worst case scenario would occur based on your choice, could you live with your decision?
- Based on your choice, what is your plan of action?
- What types of monitoring procedures would you develop?
- What would you include in your sanctions for violations policy?
- How would you address the following?

- - Tracking each point of access of the patient’s database including who entered the data
  - Nurses in your hospital have an access code that only gives them access to their Unit’s patients. A visitor accidentally comes to the wrong unit looking for a patient and asks the nurse to find out what unit the patient is on.

Please submit one APA formatted paper between 1000 – 1500 words, not including the title and reference page. The assignment should have a minimum of two scholarly sources, in addition to the textbook.

Additionally, complete ONE of the free courses offer through the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Information Security Awareness OR Privacy Awareness. Both are available at this URL: http://irtsectraining.nih.gov/. Each course takes 30-60 minutes to complete, and you must upload and submit your completion certificate to the along with the essay for this week.

McGonigle, D. & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Boston: Jones & Bartlett. (Chapters 5, 8, and 12)

Expert Answer and Explanation

Nursing Informatics Applications: Ethics, Privacy, and Security

The responsibility of nurses is to protect patients from any harm while they are in their care. Iyengar et al. (2018) mention that nurses can protect patients by ensuring that their data are secure. However, in case the data leaks out, the nurses should develop strategies to solve the problem. Therefore, the purpose of this assignment is to analyze this scenario and develop solutions to solve the issue.

My Feeling About the Situation

I will feel bad about the unfolding event. As a privacy officer, I must ensure that patient data remain confidential and out of reach of unauthorized persons. However, after the scenario, I will feel like I have failed to execute my duties as a privacy officer. The management might decide to fire me because I have failed to protect the patients. Also, the patient might decide to file a lawsuit against me. The decision of the management and the patient will definitely make me feel anxious.

The Problem

The patient’s blood glucose has been rising for the last five days. Thus, the physician has instructed that the patient should be reached and notified of the concern. However, the nurse in charge of the messaging added more personal information apart from the normal review and sent it to the patient’s home computer. Unfortunately, the patient’s 4-year old sister found the message and sent it to other people making the data to be public. The nurse should not have included personal data in the information.

Ethical Principles to Guide the Practice

According to Sawyerr et al. (2018), every action in a hospital setting is guided by ethical principles. For instance, the patient decision-making process is guided by the autonomy principle. In this case, I will use the confidentiality principle to guide the case. Confidentiality argues that all personal data should be kept private and away from unauthorized people. The nurse who sent the message compromised the confidentiality principle by sending private data into the patients’ parents’ home computer, a public device (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017).

Alternatives for Solving the Dilemma

The following two alternatives will be used to solve the problem herein. The first alternative is contacting the parents of the patient and apologizing to them on behalf of the organization and the nurse who made a mistake. Acknowledging the mistake and asking for forgiveness is a way of showing that one is responsible for his or her actions (Sawyerr et al., 2018). The second alternative is discussing with the patient about another communication channel the hospital can reach them without compromising their confidentiality.

The Consequences of the Alternatives

Asking for forgiveness will help in calming down the patients and showing them that the hospital as a whole is regretting its actions. Also, this alternative will help prevent the parents from filing a lawsuit against the firm for mismanaging their child’s medical information. The second alternative will help the nurse, together with the patient’s parents, create a more secure communication channel where they can communicate freely (Pownell et al., 2020). The secure channel will ensure that such mistakes do not happen in the future.

The First Choice

From the two alternatives, I will choose to start will an apology before embarking on education. Report that when patients lose faith in nurses and the hospital as a whole, they cannot trust anything coming from the professionals. Thus, the apology will be helpful in rebuilding a mutual relationship with the patient’s parents. Also, through apology, the hospital will show its responsibility for every action taken within the institution. This alternative will give the parents the reason to listen to me again.

Persons involved in the Problem

My first choice has taken all the people involved in the situation into consideration. The first people involved are the parents of the patient who have been offended. The apologetic message written will target the parents of the patient. Another person involved in this problem is the nurse who sent the message. The person has been included in the solution in that he or she has been the one to deliver the apogeic message. The management has been represented in the situation by the privacy officer.

Decision in the Worst-Case Scenario

It the worst-case scenario would occur; I would still maintain my decision and live with it. Apologizing to the patient’s parents and assuring them that the scenario will never repeat itself is the right call in this situation. Through apology, I can show the patient that it was not the intention of the nurses to make the information public. It also shows regret and responsibility. Therefore, even if the situation was worse, it would still apply this first alternative and have no regrets about it.

My Plan of Action

My plan of action includes the following steps. First, I will sermon the nurse who sent the message and integrate him. Second, together with the nurse, we will develop an apologetic message. Third, I will reach the patient’s parents and deliver the message in person accompanied by the nurse who made a mistake. Lastly, I will help the parents to develop a secure communication channel we can use for further communications.

Monitoring Techniques

In the first monitoring procedure, I will develop surveys. I will be providing patients with evaluation forms and ask them how they can rate the privacy policy of the organization. The second technique that will be used to monitor the situation is direct observation. Also, analyzing patient complaint records can be used to monitor the situation in the hospital.

Sanctions for Violations Policy

The first sanction is developing protocols that dictates the kind of data that should be shared through online platform to prevent violating patients’ privacy. The second sanction is creating measures that highlight the consequences of violating confidentiality of patient data.

How to Track Point of Access of the Patient’s Database

Tracking will be done by reviewing the history of the electronic health record. The technology has the ability to show who entered the database and what he or she viewed. This technology can be used to flag any unauthorized access to the database.

Directing a Visitor

Before directing the visitor, I will ask him or her how he or she relates to the patient in question and then ask him to show me his or her identification card (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2017). After verifying the information, I will log in and check the patient’s details and tell the visitor where or she can find the patient.

Conclusion

Data security is a significant element in the healthcare industry, and thus nurses should ensure that patient’s data is secure to gain their loyalty and trust.

References

Iyengar, A., Kundu, A., & Pallis, G. (2018). Healthcare informatics and privacy. IEEE Internet Computing, 22(2), 29-31. Retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8345561

McGonigle, D. & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Boston: Jones & Bartlett. (Chapters 5, 8, and 12)

Pownell, J. M., Larson, L., Neago, D. H., Pesch, M. S., Ayres, S. J., & Austin, R. R. (2020). Using Readability to Explore Data Privacy Statements Within Mobile Health Applications. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 38(5), 217-223. doi: 10.1097/CIN.0000000000000647

Sawyerr, C., Stevens, K., Martin, S., & JD, C. (2018). SINI 2018: The Security Informatics Nurse Specialist Role. http://hdl.handle.net/10713/10101

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