5) The client must be provided with an adequate opportunity to change his/her mind and withdraw his/her consent without penalty at any time.
CONFIDENTIALITY
The client, health provider relationship is sustained by trust. Clients provide information on their horses, either willingly or thorough questions asked during a case history and needs assessment. This is done in order to ensure that a healthcare provider has sufficient information to understand and assess the role of any factor or factors which may be affecting the physical condition with which he or she is presented with. As a result, a bond of confidentiality has protected the client/health provider relationship since the beginnings of modern western medicine. As the now famous passage from the Hippocratic Oath states: "And whatsoever I shall see or hear in the course of my profession, as well as outside my profession in my intercourse with men, if it be what shall not be published abroad, I will never divulge, holding such things to be holy secrets". The World Medical Association Treatment Code of medical ethics expressly states regarding physician duties to keep confidentiality: "the physician owes the patient absolute secrecy on all information which has been confided to him, or which he knows because of the confidence entrusted to him"
EXERCISE 7: DISCUSSION
Why is keeping confidentiality important for an ethical practice in EMT?
What is the ethical rational for maintaining privacy and confidentiality?
1. Every person has a right to privacy and confidentiality. 2. Privacy is the foundation of a person’s dignity and autonomy and it is needed to maintain dignity and autonomy. 3. Sharing of private information with a client creates a relationship which includes promise of professional confidentiality. 4. Without the bond of confidentiality people who need help in healthcare would not seek it out because of fear of disclosure, thus causing them harm.
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