I know confidentiality is considered one of the most important things in medicine, but I learned from a friend working in another country how we in the west treat confidentiality, isn't necessarily right for everyone.
My friend is from Zimbabwe, but works with me here in Europe, and she told me what is was like when HIV really got hold of her home country. She describes how all the parents died, and the grandparents were left raising the grandchildren - she banded some of these grandmothers together and now has a charity helping children.
Anyway, she was saying that even when the WHO and other powers made effective medication free for many people in third world countries like hers, people kept on dying, when they shouldn't, especially young men.
She said a lot of the doctors treated patients like they would in the west, and when they first told a young man he was HIV positive, they would tell him in utmost confidence, and outline his treatment plan, and how to take his meds and when to have follow-up appointments and when to get extra help.
The men would leave, not take their meds, and eventually die.
My colleague and friend said confidentiality is different where she is, and you would never tell a young man or woman such a diagnosis, and would automatically involved the whole family. You wouldn't even ask if the family should be there, you would automatically tell them all to be there. Then the patient with HIV became not just a family issue, but a community/village one, and the outcomes suddenly reversed and people stopped dying. It also made a huge difference in stopping parents passing on the virus to their children.
I know in the west, to do something like this goes against everything we're taught. And I'm not saying one is more right than the other, as that is not the issue, but it was really interesting to hear such a significant cultural difference.
Anyway, I'm sure I'll be picked to pieces for this. But I genuinely think it quite fascinating and hope someone out there does to.
Yes yes, we love letting it all out in front of everyone. You're on to us
really? If you think about it, all I did was say I don't put catheters in women, and explained why. One of the reasons being that, where I have worked, I need a female chaperone anyway.
Yet it seems in American, women of all ages are quite happy to let it all out in front of everyone. Quite different from what I'm used to. A learning experience for all really.
Does not anybody here remember seeing pictures of quarantine signs on houses when done one had the mumps or measles or even polio and small pox? Confidentiality is a relatively new concept in healthcare. In fact even doctors acknowledge that if HIV was treated as a communicable disease in the beginning instead of the privacy of the patient the spread would not have been as bad.
Regardless of the source I think this is an interesting topic. I doubt if any of the so called third world nations have privacy laws regarding healthcare, or anything else for that matter. I am not even sure how many developed nations take it as seriously as we do here in the US.
Heck, even here it regularly becomes an issue. How many of you have royally ticked off somebody looking for information that you couldn't provide? I know for me it's happened a lot. The "but why can't you tell my about so and so? That's my sister!" Then I have to go into the whole explanation of why I can't release any information as they are not on the list of people I am allowed to talk to. That can be quite the awkward conversation.
really? If you think about it, all I did was say I don't put catheters in women, and explained why. One of the reasons being that, where I have worked, I need a female chaperone anyway.
Yet it seems in American, women of all ages are quite happy to let it all out in front of everyone. Quite different from what I'm used to. A learning experience for all really.
That is crude, untrue, and completely uncalled for. And you wonder why you lack credibility here?
That is crude, untrue, and completely uncalled for. And you wonder why you lack credibility here?
If you saw the responses I got, you would see why I could be led to believe that. I even had people saying they would be happy for a male to catheterise their 18yr old daughter. Where I come from, people simply do agree, and that sort of thing simply does not happen. Yet i get attacked for it, and people calling me strange, yet from my experience, it's the other way round. But some people some cannot appreciate that other groups of people may not think like them.
If you saw the responses I got, you would see why I could be led to believe that. I even had people saying they would be happy for a male to catheterise their 18yr old daughter. Where I come from, people simply do agree, and that sort of thing simply does not happen. Yet i get attacked for it, and people calling me strange, yet from my experience, it's the other way round. But some people some cannot appreciate that other groups of people may not think like them.
But you are astonished by the way things happen here in the States, and spend a lot of time talking about how it isn't that way where YOU'RE from.
Doesn't that make you guilty of the same behavior you accuse Americans of??
If you saw the responses I got, you would see why I could be led to believe that. I even had people saying they would be happy for a male to catheterise their 18yr old daughter. Where I come from, people simply do agree, and that sort of thing simply does not happen. Yet i get attacked for it, and people calling me strange, yet from my experience, it's the other way round. But some people some cannot appreciate that other groups of people may not think like them.
NO NO NO, not a justification. No one is ever "HAPPY" to have an invasive procedure, and allowing a professional to do their job in a clinical and compassionate manner is in no way, shape, or form equivalent to "being happy to let it all hang out in front of everyone." Your post was crude, untrue, uncalled for and disrespectful to boot.
NO NO NO, not a justification. No one is ever "HAPPY" to have an invasive procedure, and allowing a professional to do their job in a clinical and compassionate manner is in no way, shape, or form equivalent to "being happy to let it all hang out in front of everyone." Your post was crude, untrue, uncalled for and disrespectful to boot.
Are you really a nurse? Perhaps you're a manager, because most nurses I know are pretty crude, politically incorrect, and even disrespectful, at when we talk amongst ourselves. You don't fit the criteria.
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
Are you really a nurse? Perhaps you're a manager, because most nurses I know are pretty crude, politically incorrect, and even disrespectful, at when we talk amongst ourselves. You don't fit the criteria.
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
really? If you think about it, all I did was say I don't put catheters in women, and explained why. One of the reasons being that, where I have worked, I need a female chaperone anyway.
Yet it seems in American, women of all ages are quite happy to let it all out in front of everyone. Quite different from what I'm used to. A learning experience for all really.
Good lord, really?! That is just an ignorant statement. Why don't you check your facts before you say something like that.
Wow. You will never "get it". It must be another "cultural" thing because I don't see nurses behaving the way you insist we do. Perhaps YOUR'RE not a nurse...
Are you really a nurse? Perhaps you're a manager, because most nurses I know are pretty crude, politically incorrect, and even disrespectful, at when we talk amongst ourselves. You don't fit the criteria.
BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN
3,520 Posts
Yes yes, we love letting it all out in front of everyone. You're on to us