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Professional Ethics and Confidentiality

Professional Ethics and Confidentiality

by Site Owner -
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Students must always remember that the information in a clinical laboratory is confidential. This means that all lab results are to be directed only to physicians, nurses, and other health professionals for diagnosis and treatment. Students shall not tell patients, parents, friends, relatives, or non-laboratory hospital employees the results of tests or the nature of any illness. This information is given only by the physician to the patient.

It is expected that laboratory professionals may encounter extremely ill or possibly contagious patients in routine practice. As a student, you should expect occasions when you will be working with these patients or their specimens as part of your clinical experience. It would be considered unprofessional, and unethical to refuse to treat these patients and their specimens respectfully and properly.

Failure to comply with the above is cause for immediate dismissal from the program.

Professional Risks

Interactions with clients in the health care system carry inherent risks to both the client and care giver, including, but not limited to, communicable diseases. In the curriculum, students will be given information regarding known risks for various medical conditions and provided necessary skills to implement precautions. Standard precautions, prescribed by the Center for Disease Control, will be taught to all students, and must be strictly adhered to.

All students will be expected to provide appropriate care to all clients assigned to them in any health care setting as a learning experience. These assignments may include clients with medical diagnoses of tuberculosis, hepatitis A, B or C, and/or AIDS. Additionally, it will be the responsibility of the student to implement Standard Precautions as appropriate when providing care and adhere to all facility policies