Monitoring employees emails without violating their privacy right

The capability of an employee to violate the policy of an organization is a concern for an employer. Monitoring is a measure taken by an employer to discourage an employee from acting inappropriately. However, current monitoring techniques tend to raise privacy issues because they violate the privacy rights of employees. Applying a monitoring technique without violating the privacy of employees is the aim of this paper. We propose a design and a protocol which give an employer the opportunity to monitor employee email in order to detect company policy violations. This can be achieved without violating the privacy of honest employees, while at the same time revealing evidence about the illegal actions of dishonest employees.

Re Kevin : gender dysphoria and the right to marry

What does it comfort any of us to insist that an individual shall be a man, when for the purposes of ordinary life that individual can only be, and be recognised, as a woman? What pride can there be for a law which vetoes the attitudes dictated by ordinary humanity?[1]

Those suffering from gender dysphoria have been described in the following simple language:

People with gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder live with a conviction that their physical anatomy is incompatible with their true gender role. They have an overwhelming desire to live and function in the opposite biological sex.

Why wrongful birth actions are right

A wrongful birth action is a claim in negligence brought by parents of a child against a doctor who has "wrongfully" caused their child to be born. These claims can be divided into two categories: those where a doctor performs a failed sterilisation procedure that leads to a healthy child being born; and those where a doctor fails to provide sufficient information to allow parents to choose to abort a handicapped child. The recent decision of the High Court of Australia in Cattanach v Melchior (2003) 77 ALJR 1312 falls into the former category. The decision to allow the parents to receive damages for the costs of raising and maintaining their child has generated much public debate. Despite the endorsement of this "wrongful birth" action, there are indications that the legislature will overturn the decision. This article examines whether there is a sound doctrinal basis for recognising wrongful birth actions.

Medical treatment and the good death: an ethical analysis of euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, and the right to die

Frequent advances in medical technologies have brought fonh many innovative treatments that allow medical teams to treal many patients with grave illness and serious trauma who would have died only a few years earlier. These changes have given some patients a second chance at life, but for others. these new treatments have merely prolonged their dying. Instead of dying relatively painlessly, these unfortunate patients often suffer from painful tenninal illnesses or exist in a comatose state that robs them of their dignity, since they cannot survive without advanced and often dehumanizing forms of treatment. Due to many of these concerns, euthanasia has become a central issue in medical ethics. Additionally, the debate is impacted by those who believe that patients have the right make choices about the method and timing of their deaths. Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act by a physician to hasten the death of a patient, whether through active methods such as an injection of morphine, or through the withdrawal of advanced forms of medical care, for reasons of mercy because of a medical condition that they have. This study explores the question of whether euthanasia is an ethical practice and, as determined by ethical theories and professional codes of ethics, whether the physician is allowed to provide the means to give the patient a path to a "good death," rather than one filled with physical and mental suffering. The paper also asks if there is a relevant moral difference between the active and passive forms of euthanasia and seeks to define requirements to ensure fully voluntary decision making through an evaluation of the factors necessary to produce fully informed consent. Additionally, the proper treatments for patients who suffer from painful terminal illnesses, those who exist in persistent vegetative states and infants born with many diverse medical problems are examined. The ultimate conclusions that are reached in the paper are that euthanasia is an ethical practice in certain specific circumstances for patients who have a very low quality of life due to pain, illness or serious mental deficits as a result of irreversible coma, persistent vegetative state or end-stage clinical dementia. This is defended by the fact that the rights of the patient to determine his or her own fate and to autonomously decide the way that he or she dies are paramount to all other factors in decisions of life and death. There are also circumstances where decisions can be made by health care teams in conjunction with the family to hasten the deaths of incompetent patients when continued existence is clearly not in their best interest, as is the case of infants who are born with serious physical anomalies, who are either 'born dying' or have no prospect for a life that is of a reasonable quality. I have rejected the distinction between active and passive methods of euthanasia and have instead chosen to focus on the intentions of the treating physician and the voluntary nature of the patient's request. When applied in equivalent circumstances, active and passive methods of euthanasia produce the same effects, and if the choice to hasten the death of the patient is ethical, then the use of either method can be accepted. The use of active methods of euthanasia and active forms of withdrawal of life support, such as the removal of a respirator are both conscious decisions to end the life of the patient and both bring death within a short period of time. It is false to maintain a distinction that believes that one is active killing. whereas the other form only allows nature to take it's course. Both are conscious choices to hasten the patient's death and should be evaluated as such. Additionally, through an examination of the Hippocratic Oath, and statements made by the American Medical Association and the American College of physicians, it can be shown that the ideals that the medical profession maintains and the respect for the interests of the patient that it holds allows the physician to give aid to patients who wish to choose death as an alternative to continued suffering. The physician is also allowed to and in some circumstances, is morally required, to help dying patients whether through active or passive forms of euthanasia or through assisted suicide. Euthanasia is a difficult topic to think about, but in the end, we should support the choice that respects the patient's autonomous choice or clear best interest and the respect that we have for their dignity and personal worth.

Low-flow oxygen therapy: selecting the right device

The authors provide and overview of oxygen therapy principles, describing the indications and care requirements of three low flow oxygen therapy devices and providing an algorithm for managing refractory hypoxaemia.

Selecting the right integration of research into practice strategy

Healthcare professionals need to be cognizant of integration of research into practice literature to advance clinical practice. This article describes the strengths and limitations associated with 10 currently used integration of research into practice strategies and the issues that need to be considered when selecting an appropriate strategy. Selecting the right strategy that ensures the uptake of best available evidence is an essential component of developing evidence-based practice and ultimately improving patient care.

Freedom of political communication, public officials and the emerging right to personal privacy in Australia

In recent times Australian courts have demonstrated a willingness to fashion a right to personal privacy at common law. The Australian Law Reform Commission has noted this impOt1ant development and said it was likely to continue in the absence of legislative action in the area. The aim of this article is to outline a theoretical framework to underpin and inform the development of this emerging right - howsoever framed - and the extent to which it is possible for the law to provide meaningful privacy protection to public officials under the Constitution.

Identifying the "right patient" : nurse and patient perspectives on how to verify patient identity during medication administration

In this paper, we report on a research project funded by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses’ and Bristol Myers Squibb Research Grant in 2007. We examined ways in which Mental Health Nurses could correctly identify patients during medication administration that promote medication safety and that are acceptable to both consumers and nurses. Central to the safe practice of medication administration are the “five rights” – giving the right drug, in the right dose, to the right patient, via the right route, at the right time. In non-psychiatric settings, such as medical and surgical inpatient units, the use of identification aids, such as wristbands, are common. In most Victorian psychiatric inpatient units, however, standardised identification aids are not used. Anecdotally, consumers dislike some methods of patient identification, such as wearing wrist bands, and some nurses perceive consumers’ rights are infringed through wearing personal identifiers. In focus groups, mental health consumers and Mental Health Nurses were invited to discuss their experiences of patient identification during routine psychiatric inpatient medication administration. They were also asked their opinions of, and preferences for, different ways of verifying “right patient” during routine medication administration. In our paper, we will present the findings of a qualitative research project in which we explored the experiences, opinions, and preferences of mental health consumers and Mental Health Nurses towards methods of correctly identifying patients during medication administration.

Identifying the "right patient" : nurse and patient perspectives on how to verify patient identity during medication administration

In this paper, we report on a research project funded by the Australian College Mental Health Nurses’ and Bristol Myers Squibb Research Grant in 2007. We examined ways in which mental health nurses could correctly identify patients during medication administration that promote medication safety and that are acceptable to both consumers and nurses.

Central to the safe practice of medication administration are the “five rights”- giving the right drug, in the right dose, to the right patient, via the right route, at the right time. In non-psychiatric settings, such as medical and surgical inpatient units, the use of identification aids, such as wristbands, are common. In most Victorian psychiatric inpatient units, however, standardised identification aids are not used. Anecdotally, consumers dislike some methods of patient identification, such as wearing wrist bands, and some nurses perceive consumers' rights are infringed through wearing personal identifiers.

In focus groups, mental health consumers and mental health nurses were invited to discuss their experiences of patient identification during routine psychiatric inpatient medication administration. They were also asked their opinions of, and preferences for, different ways of verifying “right patient” during routine medication administration. In our paper, we will present the findings of a qualitative research project in which we explored the experiences, opinions, and preferences of mental health consumers and mental health nurses towards methods of correctly identifying patients during medication administration.

Marketing-China and getting it right

China has become a synonym for future business growth. It is the business nirvana of the 21st century. It is the place to be. Companies are scrambling to get a share of the action. Not a day passes without some company making an announcement of an investment in their future which involves China.