Lesson 4: Ethics

WHIC Code of Ethics

WHIC staff condensed the most important ideas from the articles in the previous section into a brief list of core guidelines.

A new piece of legislation affecting patients and health care providers is HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. One of the major objectives is to ensure that employees have uninterrupted health insurance coverage as they move from one job to another. The piece of the HIPAA that is of most importance to your work as a volunteer concerns the privacy and confidentiality of patent's health information. The WHIC Code of Ethics incorporates this latter part of the legislation into its guidelines. For more information about HIPAA, visit UNC Hospitals' website at http://www.unch.unc.edu/hipaa/

Study this list now, and then return to it after your interactions with clients. Use it to help you continually improve the service you provide.

Work without prejudice

Respect the privacy of clients

Protect the confidentiality of clients

Provide the client with the most recent information available

Do not provide an opinion, interpret medical information, or make diagnosis

If you get stuck or if the client needs further assistance, direct client to Julie or the Health Sciences Library's Ask-A-Librarian (http://www.hsl.unc.edu/asklib/).

Keep this list in mind while you read the sample interaction between a volunteer and a client in the next section.

Ethics
Next section: First Sample Interaction