Would this be a moral dilemma between autonomy and beneficence

[lindsmith88]

This is for one of my classes, and I just want to make sure that it is autonomy vs. beneficence. Thank you.

The vast majority of HIV-positive physicians contacted for this article discussed feeling some level of a moral dilemma regarding disclosing their health status. "I feel in a real quandary," one cardiologist from Arizona states. "I feel that I owe it to the hospital, my patients, colleagues and partners in my practice to disclose, yet these feelings are in direct conflict with the realistic need for me to be self-protective."

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I am thinking this is more a case of justice or fairness that caregivers and patients are aware of potential risks versus privacy and confidentiality of the physician.

[Vito Andolini]

Unless there is a risk of passing HIV on to the patient, such as via surgery, why does a patient need to know that the doctor is +?

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

I don't see the disclosure of the HIV status as something that maximizes benefit to the patient (beneficence). Instead, I think it's a matter of minimizing harm (although in most settings that risk of harm is already very, very low). Do you have a term that better describes the principle of minimizing harm?

[pennyaline]

Why the need to disclose? It was determined long ago that it is unnecessary for patients to disclose their HIV status to care givers, so why would or should care givers disclose their own status to patients? The reality of health care is that we are at far greater risk of contracting diseases from patients during ordinary care giving. We would be a threat to them only under extraordinary circumstances.