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Maintaining resident confidentiality

LTC Nursing Assistant Trainer, July 22, 2004

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Maintaining confidentiality can be difficult in long-term care facilities. Often, residents share bedrooms, dining rooms, and lounges with other residents. Good nursing practice means making sure you protect residents' confidentiality and privacy as much as possible.

The following are five steps CNAs and other nursing home staff can take to reduce violations of resident confidentiality:

• If Move to a private place where others cannot overhear the conversation when discussing resident information. Do not discuss personal information in elevators, hallways, lunchrooms, restrooms, or other public spaces.
• Escort hearing-impaired residents to private areas before asking them sensitive questions.
• Guard against carelessly voiced comments that might include resident-identifiable information.
• Use speaker phones and listen to taped telephone messages that might include confidential information only where others cannot overhear.
• Share resident information only with those who need to know. If you are uncertain whether a family member or staff member from another unit needs to know, check with your superior.

Check next week to find five additional tips to minimize intrusion on resident confidentiality.

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