Legal and Ethical Issues in Nursing and Healthcare In an era of increasing medical technology, constantly changing modes for communication and expanding roles for nursing professionals, the legal and ethical challenges impacting nursing and healthcare are on the rise. Nurses face ethical and legal challenges on a daily basis, many of which are directly linked to legislative changes regarding confidentiality issues and the ethics of medical technologies. Issues of confidentiality have been a part of ethical nursing process for decades, but significant legal changes have defined a greater need to maintain confidentiality. The introduction of HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 led to the need for increased practices to protect the spread of confidential patient information. Through this act, methods were implemented to reduce the spread of patient information and required the use of login systems so that access to confidential files could be tracked. Hospital computer systems that allowed access to patient files had to have automatic log-off features so that systems could not be left on accessible for anyone at the workstation. Further, the use of password systems and the tracking of data file use led to methods to ensure that employees were not accessing files for patients for whom they were not providing care (de Jerphanion, 2004). From a nursing perspective, this type of system was implemented to track health care professionals access to confidential patient files and to protect patients from the spread of information. Technological change in the area of medicine has also given many people opportunities for longer life and has increased the effectiveness of medi