CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

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ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
Basic Rules to Observe for Confidentiality
1. Never discuss the patient or his or her condition with family and friends.
On a practical basis, a medical care worker should not be involved in matters
that are not directly related to the performance of his or her specifically
assigned and reasonable duties for his or her position.
2. Never discuss a patient’s illness in the patient’s presence or with another
worker or family member unless it is within the scope of practice. There is
evidence that patients may hear everything that is said, even when in a comatose
state. At best, the patient may misinterpret what you have to say.
3. Refer questions by the patient regarding his or her disease and treatment to
the physician in charge of the patient’s care. The patient and his or her physician
are the only persons legally and ethically able to divulge information of
any type to another party. A medical laboratory worker should not discuss
test results and the clinical significance of them. The technician or technologist
may tell the patient he or she is collecting blood for tests to assist the
patient’s physician in the diagnosis or treatment of the patient. The laboratory
worker is not aware of the patient’s condition in many instances and
may give innocent but erroneous information that may be misinterpreted.
Standards for Legal and Ethical Issues
Legal and ethical standards are developed to provide safe medical care for the
patient and to protect the caregiver. Ethical or moral activities and laws that
have been developed to govern the legal aspects of care are often the same, and
are inextricable. In fact, this country’s legal system and those of many other
countries evolved from ethics and morals that often were spawned by various
religious groups. The medical worker may be faced almost daily with decisions
to make about what is the morally or legally correct thing to do. Often, there is
an attorney on the hospital board, or an attorney on retainer, to provide input
into questions of legality when policies and procedures are being developed and
implemented. Slight differences between legal and ethical standards are:
Legal standards
Legal standards are developed within the legislative and judicial departments of
our country. If a worker fails to follow the legal standards and does not work
within the scope of practice established for his profession, he may be liable for
legal action against him.
Ethical standards
Ethical standards are based on moral standards and are in some cases based on
religion or customs . Many laws have been traditionally developed based on the
religious practices of various groups of peoples.
Sample Legal and Ethical Questions
Arguments often arise in the discussion of legal and ethical dilemmas by persons
who have an interest, perhaps even emotional or cultural, in a particular issue.
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