The Ethics of Sharing

How Do Social Workers Decide What to Record in Shared Health Records

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12901812
AutoresIsobel Cairns (0000-0001-9041-2057, University of Auckland), Monique Jonas (0000-0002-4660-1667, University of Auckland, autor de correspondencia), Katharine A Wallis (0000-0002-2580-9362, University of Auckland)
Año2017
Volumen12
Número4
Páginas348-369
Fecha de publicación2017-10-10
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEthics and Social Welfare (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1749-6535 • E-ISSN: 1749-6543
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17496535.2017.1384849
OpenAlexW2762708751
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas59

Social workers form part of many healthcare teams. This role can involve in-depth conversations with clients and home visits. These encounters can reveal sensitive information, not all of which may be accessible to other members of the healthcare team. Most modern healthcare systems employ shared care records, which are populated by, and accessible to, multiple members of the healthcare team. Shared care records are valued for their capacity to enhance inter-professional communication and improve patient care. But this very capacity may increase an underlying tension between privacy and efficient, effective care. Ethical tensions can arise for health social workers between comprehensive documentation and protecting client privacy by limiting access to privileged information obtained in the context of a social work encounter. This qualitative empirical ethics study investigated health social workers' experiences of tensions between client privacy and maintaining complete records, and how they thought the tension should be resolved. Participant testimony informed a pragmatist approach to identify principles governing recording of sensitive information in shared care records. Three principles were identified: necessity, accuracy, and neutrality. Participants' reports of moral concerns about recording indicate that ethical tensions can occur. The identified principles offer a starting point for managing such tensions

Context (archaeology · Documentation · Health care · Information sharing · Internet privacy · Neutrality · Participant observation · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues · Patient Dignity and Privacy · Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare · Psychology · Social Work