Breaking confidentiality in an interview?

[srindogg@hotmail.com]

Hi guys

 

I gotta question for you. Say you want to draw an interview answer from some volunteer work that you're doing. But the proceedings of the volunteer work are supposed to be confidential. Would this

 

a) Breach the confidentiality agreement signed in the volunteer work?

Reflect poorly on the interviewee?

 

Thanks in advance.

[rmorelan]

Hi guys

 

I gotta question for you. Say you want to draw an interview answer from some volunteer work that you're doing. But the proceedings of the volunteer work are supposed to be confidential. Would this

 

a) Breach the confidentiality agreement signed in the volunteer work?

Reflect poorly on the interviewee?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I would think probably to both questions. Not sure what your case is exactly but doctors are likely going to know what sort of confidentiality is going to be in place with certain volunteer work. A doctor is required to maintain confidentiality of their patients so breaking that here cannot be good for you

[truffle]

i've attended a few lectures taught by clinician-scientists. to illustrate scientific points, they told us stories about some patients. one was about how a 35 yo man on immunosuppressants came down with say a pain in his shoulder, and then this and that happened and then 2 days later he died, and it was difficult on the wife and family.

 

is this considered as a breach of confidentiality? there wasn't any specific clue about the patient's identity.

 

i've always thought that it's okay to talk about your hospital volunteer work, its nature and all, as long as you didn't expose patients' identity in any way (nothing like, a 5'4" woman with a mole over her left eye, orange glasses, brown hair, a tattoo over her both shoulders.) if you did stuff in sports medicine, you can say you helped many olympians/celebrity athletes through volunteering, but you can't say what sport or what team and what the people look like. if you volunteered in an HIV clinic, you can say you've worked with people from all walks of life, and you can talk about the emotions of the patients and how that really touched you, but nothing specific about the patients' identities.

[Alastriss]

Never breach confidentiality for the sake of an interview. It shows 2 things

 

1) you have no respect for privacy

2) you are willing to jeopardize information you are not entitled to share to impress individuals and attain your goal. Any sense of integrity will tell you to not do so

 

Regardless, anything that can be used to identify the identity of the individual in question is a breach. There are often ways to get around it. In the end it is the underlying meaning of your experience, not the actual details of it, that they are interested in.

[srindogg@hotmail.com]

Thanks for the replies. What you guys are saying makes sense about not revealing the details about the incident. I'm wondering how to answer questions like "tell me about a time where you displayed X quality" If I were observing strict confidentiality, I theoretically cannot bring up any incidents related to the majority of my volunteer activities. Makes me wonder how doctors, psychologists, counselors etc would answer behavioral based interview questions...

[meme me]

Thanks for the replies. What you guys are saying makes sense about not revealing the details about the incident. I'm wondering how to answer questions like "tell me about a time where you displayed X quality" If I were observing strict confidentiality, I theoretically cannot bring up any incidents related to the majority of my volunteer activities. Makes me wonder how doctors, psychologists, counselors etc would answer behavioral based interview questions...

Refer to truffle's post. If medical professionals - surely well-versed in medical ethics - are using specific examples to illustrate points, then there's no reason you can't. Confidentiality is in place to protect a patient's identity; that's it. If you can reveal details of an experience without jeopradizing that, go to town!