Electronic records, confidentiality and data security: the nurse's responsibility

The increased use of electronic patient records in the NHS means that up-to-date information about patients is readily available to a range of health professionals who are treating and caring for those patients.

The increased use of electronic records means that nurses are now able to access a large archive of patient information that was previously contained in manually created paper files only accessible to those in the clinical team caring directly for that person. This ease of access can be misused and information in electronic records accessed inappropriately by nurses. The accessibility of electronic records has resulted in health workers' curious—and sometimes malicious—reading of the notes of people who are not in their care. An NHS worker was recently sacked and another reprimanded after they inappropriately accessed the electronic records of the singer Ed Sheeran (Embury-Dennis, 2018).

Registered nurses have a professional duty to maintain a patient's confidence and to maintain data security by collecting, treating and storing all data appropriately (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2018: standards 5 and 10). Maintaining the confidentiality of a patient's electronic health information is a fundamental element of professional behaviour for nurses.