While telemedicine has proved to be a mitigator of inadequate healthcare services, a few ethical concerns about its use have been raised. These issues include lack of a previous relationship between the nurse and the client and the infringement of privacy. These issues do not only influence the patients' trust of the system but most importantly, they are likely to directly or indirectly derail them from seeking the best medical care they could wish for from a facility of their choice.
Previous Relationship between the Nurse and patient
The main concern that arises with regards to nurse-patient relationship is whether a one-time consultation over the phone between a nurse and a patient amounts to a nurse-patient relationship. The fact that in most cases of telehealth there exists no previous relationship between the patient and the nurse raises concern on whether it is safe for practitioners to address patients’ needs virtually. This is because although they might have snippets of the health history of the patient, it takes long for a satisfactory relationship to be developed between the two and eventually the medic in question understanding the emotional and physical needs of the patient. Besides, this is likely to result in trust-related issues and hence, the patient might not be able to express his or her health-related concerns in a manner that will help them acquire the intended medical care.
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Infringement of Privacy
Privacy is indeed a valid concern in today’s fast-paced Technological world. The risks related to this have to do with the inability to directly or indirectly control the collection of patients' data, its use and how it is shared within and beyond a medical facility. One significant question to ask oneself is with the numerous technological phases and inventions such as the internet of things, is the patients' data secure in the course of online or over the phone consultations? In terms of data collection, for example in installing devices that help in pointing out the causes of falls in different homes, privacy could be infringed since data such as drug abuse that the individual in question could not want to be known could be collected ( Hale, Timothy & Kvedar, 2014) .Besides the above, of concern is the number of employees who have access to databases with patients' information, the extent of the access and their reaction to the information they get with or without the patient’s consent. Individuals such as celebrities could fall prey of their private medical information getting out in the case that medical practitioners who do not abide by privacy related policies get to know their medical information. Closely related to the above, the use of data collected in undertaking research could be an infringement of a person's privacy if such an undertaking could directly or indirectly affect them. Also, it is possible that individuals with malice and personal reasons could hack a system to find out an individual’s health records. The institution in question is tasked with ensuring all of the above risks are mitigated due to related ethical concerns.
While telehealth is a major breakthrough in technology assisted healthcare, Ethical issues that pertain the relationship between the health practitioner and the patient as well as infringement of a patient's privacy remain to be a major concern. Patient's-nurse relationship affects the quality of healthcare a patient's receives due to little understanding between the two parties. This raises ethical related concerns since healthcare should always be to the benefit of the patient. Infringement of one's privacy is another concern that is negatively related to telehealth. It is highly necessary that privacy concerns related to the collection, use and sharing of data are addressed to avoid any undesirable and unexpected privacy concerns.
References
Hale, T. M., & Kvedar, J. C. (2014). Privacy and security concerns in telehealth. AMA Journal of Ethics , 16 (12), 981-985.
