Currently there are 2,620 cases of AIDS in Chicago alone, and this number just continues to rise. AIDS is a life-threatening, transmittable disease which carries an assured death sentence.
Why shouldn`t health care workers have a right to know if a patient has AIDS?
Since AIDS is transmitted through blood and body fluids, it could be easily transmitted to a nurse, whose main tasks often include getting a blood sample.
One survey in RN Magazine said that as many as six in 10 nurses do not use precautions while caring for a patient all of the time.
What about quality care for the AIDS patient? How can health care workers make informed decisions about patient care if they don`t have a full diagnosis? Nurses understand their duty to protect a patient`s privacy, but feel that ”there`s no need for the whole hospital to know a patient has AIDS.”
From the book ”Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine”: ”Confidentiality can be suspended for legitimate moral reason.” I would say that putting a health care worker`s life on the line constitutes a legitimate moral reason. Are we scaring off prospective workers because of the great risks we ask them to take every day?
