Internships are often the first chance students have to take on professional roles helping others. To distinguish care work we perform for friends, family, and community members from internship and professional practice, students must be aware of the ethical obligations of performing the roles of a human service worker. Professional ethics are designed to ensure that services truly benefit the client and community, not the student, university, or agency. We will dive deeper into professional ethics in Chapter 7.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality involves spoken, written, and behavioral communication practices designed to provide and maintain an individual’s or group’s privacy. Confidentiality is one of the key concepts taught to most human services students because it is a crucial dimension of human services work. The need for confidentiality is also a part of your obligation to the practicum class, as well as the agency and its clients, both during and after the internship.

It is likely that you have heard about the importance of confidentiality in your other courses or maybe even know about it from your experience with the health-care system’s HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) requirements. Confidentiality is usually a legal obligation, though it may have modified forms, such as in law enforcement, public records, or certain clinical situations involving abuse, homicide, or suicide. When a site indicates that something is confidential, it means just that!

However, sometimes students do not realize that this rule may also apply to their training and even classroom situations, especially when they are talking about their clinical experiences or listening to others talk about theirs. Consequently, it is important to remember to “disguise” your training experience when talking about it. Common ways of protecting confidential information include omitting or substantially changing names and identifying information of clients, staff, and agencies—sometimes even your own site!

For example: One intern mentioned in the classroom portion of their practicum that a staff member at the site said that she had just found out she was pregnant at age 43. The intern mentioned the woman’s first name and added that the individual was distressed by the news and did not want to tell her family about it until she figured out what she was going to do. Unknown to the intern, the woman was the mother of one of the other students in the class, so that student had just found out—along with everyone else in the class—that the student’s mother was pregnant.

Confidential guidelines may apply to agency material, such as handbooks and policies. Caution is especially important when it comes to using social media because once something is online, it is impossible to fully erase it. If you must make a reference, say something such as “at work.” It is also important to make sure not to gossip in the classroom about happenings at the site if they are not relevant to the course. After all, there is a difference between professional dialogue and just spreading gossip. Confidentiality is so important that colleges may dismiss students from an internship or even a program for sharing confidential information. Be sure to understand expectations concerning confidentiality with your instructor as well as your supervisor. Finding out what the rules are and adhering to them are part of what it means to be a professional.

Focus on Ethics Licenses and Attributions

“Focus on Ethics” by Yvonne M. Smith LCSW is licensed under CC BY 4.0.