The time has come for professional nursing organizations to develop a code of ethics specifically for nurse educators to use in dealing with confidential student information. 1 With the diversity of students enrolled in nursing schools in the United States, most faculty are not prepared to deal with confidential student information. According to Scanlan, Care, and Gessler, 2 nurse educators must have policies and procedures that are fair and impartial; the policies need to be in place and enforced to protect faculty from accusations of bias and unfairness.

I feel a national policy should be developed by professional organizations to guide faculty in making decisions about individual students regarding their abilities, mental status, and moral code of conduct. If the student's behavior is improper enough to jeopardize patient safety, it is not right for faculty alone to decide the student's fate. A universal policy would be more appropriate in these situations, because if a situation regarding a student was handled by a different person, or even a group of people in another part of the country, the outcome for that student might be different.

The authors 2 state there is not enough research from the faculty or students' perspective to know how either side feels about confidential information being shared and managed. I, too, found nothing about this topic. It's time for our professional organizations to implement the necessary research to develop a national policy regarding confidential student information.

Cheryl Tiblets, BSN, RN

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