Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) Practice Test

Nurses are expected to intervene if confidentiality and privacy obligations are not met by whom?

1. Patients

2. Health care providers

3. Insurance companies

4. Healthcare administrators

The correct answer is: Health care providers

Nurses are trained to uphold patient confidentiality and privacy as a core ethical obligation in their practice. This responsibility extends to ensuring that all health care providers, including physicians, therapists, and administrative staff, comply with confidentiality standards. When health care providers fail to maintain these obligations—whether through sharing patient information without consent or not properly safeguarding personal health information—it places the patient's rights and well-being at risk. It is the nurse's duty to advocate for the patient and intervene in situations where confidentiality may be compromised. This may involve addressing the issue directly with the providers involved or escalating the concern to higher authorities within the healthcare system to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to protect patient privacy. Other parties, such as patients, insurance companies, and healthcare administrators, play roles in the healthcare system, but the immediate responsibility for upholding confidentiality primarily lies with health care providers in the context of direct patient care.