For your professional ethics edification in March

Once a month the ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members.  Each posting is accompanied by a brief personal reflection from a member of the PEC discussing some ways this person lives these commitments*.  March’s statements are:

1. In relationship to those served, ACPE members:

• respect confidentiality to the extent permitted by law, regulations or other applicable rules.
• Follow nationally established guidelines in the design of research involving human subjects and gain approval from a recognized institutional review board before conducting such research.
  

Ruth Gais, ACPE Certified Educator from Lenox Hill Hospital, Northwell Health in New York, New York, comments:

As a neophyte chaplain I learned from my very first day that we chaplains are expected to consider what we learn from our pastoral encounters as privileged, indeed, I would say, sacred, confidential information. Now I tell my own students that they can go home and tell their loved ones that they’ve had a horrible day, a favorite patient died, perhaps, but that’s all they could say about that patient. I impress upon them that to do otherwise is a HIPPA violation, a violation of an ACPE Code of Professional Ethics, a hospital policy violation – all true – but it is much more. It is a violation of the basic decent behavior of one human being towards another.  The first part of Leviticus 19:16, my source for my obligation to respect confidentiality, states, “Don’t act like a merchant towards your own people.”

What does this mean? A merchant, someone who does business with many people in the marketplace, knows a lot about her customers. I remember when I lived in Rome I shopped for fruits and vegetables every day at a little outdoor market. Soon I knew the merchants and they knew me and probably knew much more about me than I realized. How true this is for chaplains as well! Not only do we intrude upon patients in their ostensibly private spaces, and, with even a casual glance around the room, gain information about them, but also we have access to their confidential records and can often get more information from their caregivers. How much damage could we do, were we not bound by the obligations imposed upon us by HIPPA regulations, by the ACPE Code of Professional Ethics and, most importantly, by our own conscience?

The answer to my question comes from the second half of the Leviticus verse mentioned above. The end of the verse is a vivid and chilling reminder of what might be the consequence of our violation of this obligation to each other: “Do not profit by the blood of your fellow human being.”  Put in such stark terms, our ethical obligation is absolutely clear. In no uncertain terms we are commanded never to use the suffering of another to benefit ourselves in any way. 

*Every situation is unique, and any member should not take action based solely on the comments in the article but to base action on an independent review of the ethical standards applicable to his/her situation.