Client Confidentiality: Perspectives of Students in a Healthcare Training Programme

Background. Confidentiality is an important ethical principle for all health professionals and also has a legal bearing on duty. One of the most difficult issues health professionals face in their daily fieldwork practice is a conflict between their professional duties; as illustrated in keeping a patient's medical information confidential; and having empathy with a family member's need to know. This moral dilemma is difficult for students to circumvent and therefore this paper presents healthcare students' perspectives of confidentiality.Methods. We aimed to explore healthcare students' views and experiences of confidentiality as an ethical principle by adopting a qualitative explorative approach. Purposeful sampling was undertaken where specific individuals with specific experiences were identified. Data were collected by means of written responses from two open-ended questions and analysed thematically. Two themes emerged.Conclusion. Confidentiality; as with other ethical principles; is an important obligation of a good client-therapist relationship as identified by students. However; the students' responses illustrate that it cannot be absolute; and cognisance must be taken as to when it is acceptable; and even desirable; to override confidentiality because of conflicting; greater duties

Sense of Humour and Adolescents' Cognitive Flexibility

Objective: There is a lack of research on humour among adolescents in South Africa. This article examines cognitive flexibility and humour. The objective was to investigate the roles of gender and language as possible moderating variables in the relationship between adolescents' cognitive flexibility and sense of humour. Design: A correlational research design was used in which pupils were asked to complete the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale to assess their sense of humour. In order to determine the cognitive flexibility of the sample group; Martin and Rubin's Cognitive Flexibility Scale was applied. Setting and subjects: The initial sample comprised 1 203 adolescents (Grade 11 and 12 pupils) randomly selected from the Eastern Cape; Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Of these; a final 392 adolescents qualified after eliminating criteria had been applied. Results: No significant correlations were found between the total group or for the two genders. Significant positive correlations were found between cognitive flexibility and two of the scores for humour (creating and expressing humour); as well as for the total score for Afrikaans-speaking participants. Significant negative correlations were found between cognitive flexibility and all five of the scores for humour for the Nguni language speakers. Conclusion: This study recommends that culturally sensitive measuring instruments should be developed