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Wasn't told patient is HIV+ - is this legal/ethical?

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Author Wasn't told patient is HIV+ - is this legal/ethical?

Lorrie

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  • Joined: May 2012
  • Location:
  • Posts: 3

Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:06 pm

I'm not a nurse, I'm a community personal carer (domestic) working for an aged care facility and so don't do any medical, hands-on work - mainly cleaning. But my roster included an alert and management refused to tell me what this meant and were very evasive in answering my questions. I only found out once I went to the client's home and checked their chart. Is this ethical and legal? I'm guessing this is because of privacy laws but how fair is this to the worker? Are there different rules for nurses? Don't we have the right to know?

MissyA

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MissyA
  • Joined: Jan 2012
  • Location:
  • Posts: 19

Jun 03, 2012, 10:40 am

I wonder if cleaners working in hospital environments are also made aware of HIV patients when they are working in their rooms? Anyone else know? I suppose it may come down to the policies and procedures of your workplace but management seem to be very evasive about this issue with you.

http://www.ashm.org.au/HIVLegal/Default.asp?PublicationID=2&ParentSectionID=P2&SectionID=340

This is a great website re: information on all legal matters and more on HIV: it states ' health care providers may owe a duty of care to persons other than their patient where it is reasonably foreseeable that their actions might harm those persons. In such cases, health care providers could be held liable for injuries or harm suffered by third parties as a result of their acts and omissions.'

 “Employers of persons in any of these occupations should recognise that inadvertent exposure is a risk and employees should be made aware of the exposure risks and preventive procedures.” This quote is from National Code of Practice for the Control of Work-related Exposure to Hepatitis and HIV (Blood-borne) Viruses [NOHSC:2010(2003)] It would be worth reading: the link is below

http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/AboutSafeWorkAustralia/WhatWeDo/Publications/Documents/263/NationalCodeOfPractice_Control_WorkRelatedExposure_Hepatitis_HIVViruses_NOHSC2010-2003_PDF.pdf

In fact, the 'safeworkaustralia' government website has a lot of good Occupational Health and Safety information for community workers and is worth looking at then maybe bringing to the attention of your employer! Good luck.

Darren

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Your country needs you!
  • Joined: Mar 2005
  • Location: Adelaide
  • Posts: 179

Jun 03, 2012, 09:10 pm

Hi Lorrie,

my view is that there is no real reason why your employer would need to let you know. Your risk of contracting HIV from cleaning someone's house is virtually nil.

Your employer would have protected you, by teaching you to observe universal precautions. For example, if you saw blood on the floor of anyone's house, would you not treat it as potentially infective and make sure you are wearing gloves and clean appropriately? Just because the client has HIV does not alter how you would approach this scenario.

It would be reasonable for a nurse who is taking blood to be aware of the person's status, but not reasonable for a cleaner to be aware.

cheers

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