Ethical Problems in Transferring Nursing Discharge Summary from Hospital to Home Health Care Setting

Abstract

 With the growing numbers of patients who are transferred from hospital to the community, the need for some guidelines related to sharing the patient’s information across institutions has become apparent. A questionnaire survey was given to hospital nurses regarding the necessity of information sharing and ethical problems involv ed. Whereas most of the nurses supported information sharing across institutions, they exhibited two major ethical concerns: privacy and confidentiality. Discussion on these two concepts based upon the ethical decision making process proposed by the authors lead to the following conclusion: 1) Information sharing should not be discouraged due to over concern about patient’s privacy. 2) In continuity of care, confidentiality among health professional is maintained, 3) Home care nurses should more utilize patient’s information from hospital.