This project consisted of a series of PowerPoint slides to explain how professional codes of conduct or ethics can help counselors and other professional avoid committing malpractice, what steps should be taken to resolve ethical dilemmas and other factors that are of current interest to healthcare providers and other professions with respect to codes of conduct.
Code of Ethics: Malpractice and Relevance
According to Black's Law Dictionary, malpractice is "professional misconduct or unreasonable lack of skill. Failure of one rendering professional services to exercise that degree of skill or learning commonly applied under all the circumstances in the community by the average prudent, reputable member of the profession with the result of injury, loss or damage to the recipient of those services" (p. 959).
A code of ethics or conduct can help professional counselors avoid unintentionally committing breaches of trust, therapeutic relationship or other actions that are violative of the patient-counselor relationship that can be construed as malpractice.
Information on religious group's policies on confidentiality and dual relationships.
According to Audette (1988), in the Catholic Church, for example:
"The therapeutic ethic relies largely on a contract model of a professional-client relationship: confidentiality is based on the dual needs of respecting the individual and preserving the character of relationships. This approach does not encourage the appropriate sharing of information within the community by which the gathered people might be responsible to and for each other" (p. 83).
2. "Unlike professional counselors, clergy have a wide range of contacts with people through which they gain much information and knowledge about persons. Such pervasive contact, formal and informal, direct and indirect, can make the boundaries of confidentiality unclear for both clergy and laity. Additionally, clergy often find themselves in a bind: disclosure of information could be helpful to the welfare of the community but may also be contrary to the wishes of the individual who gave the information" (p. 83).
State's law on clergy confidentiality.
In general, Audette (1998) reports that:
1. State laws concerning clergy confidentiality involve "only what is admissible in a court of law. They are designed to determine immunities from testifying in court. Disclosures made privately indicate an intent that such communications be kept confidential and may be immune from disclosure in a court of law.
2. Public disclosures enjoy no such immunity. It is unclear how confidentiality is applied to disclosures made to clergy during home visits if there is more than one person present (p. 85).
How the standards and guidelines on confidentiality conflict or reinforce one another.
1. Across the board, professional codes of conduct or ethics reinforce one another by emphasizing the need for confidentiality; however, there are some different views concerning what steps must or should be taken by professionals in cases where certain types of criminal or other legal issues are involved (Allen, 2011).
2. In addition, there is an initiative underway to standardize the wording in various professional codes of ethics or conduct because of current inconsistencies between them (Allen, 2011).
How to avoid potential conflicts, if any, between religious group's policies and state's laws.
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