Read the following 10 scenarios and questions and choose the most appropriate responses. The program will provide you with the correct response and an explanation for each question.

On completion of all 10 scenarios, please complete the registration information form and then click FINISH to get you to the page that will allow you to print, review, and sign the Privacy and Confidentiality Agreement.

Scenarios

1. You are standing in line in the hospital cafeteria and two staff members are discussing a patient they are caring for on their unit. They call the patient by name and discuss the diagnosis and the gravity of the patient's prognosis.
   
   How do you react?
   
   
   1. Remind staff that they cannot discuss confidential information in public areas.
   2. Do nothing. Health care providers are stressed for time. They need to leverage whatever time they have to provide the best care for their patients.
   
   
2. You overhear a call indicating a coworker in your area will not be at work because she was admitted for emergency treatment. You are concerned about her condition. You decide to call the unit where you think she was admitted to and you request information from staff on how she is doing.
   
   Are you breaching the patient's privacy?
   
   
   1. Yes.
   2. No.
   
   
3. On your way to getting a coffee, you notice one of your son's friends going into the Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) clinic. You don't say a thing and you're certain he does not notice you. That evening, you decide to have a discussion with your son about safe sex. During the conversation, you mention that you saw his classmate in the STD clinic.
   
   Did you breach the patient's privacy and confidentiality?
   
   
   1. Yes.
   2. No.
   
   
4. Occupational Health & Safety occasionally conducts testing 'blitzes' at the hospital. During the "Hearing Week Blitz", you decide to ask the audiologist: "How bad is Joe's hearing? He seems to have a lot of difficulty hearing when we work together. I have to say things several times and I even raise my voice at times. I'm really concerned."
   
   What response can you expect from the audiologist?
   
   
   1. "Yes, Joe's hearing is poor."
   2. "I can't discuss a patient's hearing without their consent."
      
      
5. Everyday, you pass several nurse stations on your way to your work. At one station, you notice the name and room number of your spouse's coworkers listed on the whiteboard. You call your spouse and inform him of this and suggest that his office might want to send some flowers to the coworker. You tell him the patient's room number.
   
   Which statement best reflects your actions:
   
   
   1. You did not violate the patient's right to privacy.
   2. You violated the patient's right to privacy.
   
   
6. You find a sheet of paper that appears to be part of a patient's record. It has a name, address, and blood pressure, pulse, and other personal health information.
   
   What do you do?
   
   
   1. Call the unit where this sheet of paper originated. Secure the information and wait for someone from that unit to pick it up.
   2. Throw it away. Garbage is picked up frequently and it won't be a problem once it gets into a waste skid.
      
      
7. A patient has the right to control the collection, use and/or disclosure of his or her own personal information, unless the collection, use and/or disclosure is required or permitted by law.
   
   
   1. True.
   2. False.
   
   
8. Ontario implemented a new Privacy Act - the Personal Health Information Protection Act - on November 1, 2004. This Act addresses the collection, use, sharing, disclosure and retention of personal health information.
   
   
   1. True.
   2. False
   
   
9. You are a member of the housekeeping staff. You clean an office where you regularly find papers containing confidential information in the regular trash.
   
   What do you do?
   
   
   1. Do nothing and continue your work. It is up to the individual to properly dispose of their confidential waste.
   2. Tell your supervisor. The supervisor will contact the person to inform them of the appropriate way of disposing confidential waste.
      
   
   
10. Confidentiality is the moral, ethical, legal, and professional obligation of staff and affiliates to protect information entrusted to them regardless of format.
    
    
    1. True
    2. False