Consent to access, share and create e-health records

This briefing lays out the background to the development of e-health records and offers guidance for nurses in practice on what implications this has for record keeping and in particular, consent to access, share and create records. This is one of series of products being commissioned by the e-health project board to meet the needs of nurses in practice in respect of e-health.

The RCN believes that this data should be obtained as a by-product of the data obtained for the primary purpose of the patient’s care. It supports the goal of “Record once, use many times for multiple purposes”. However the RCN is concerned to ensure that the data obtained and stored includes relevant nursing data as well as medical and administrative data, and has published standards for the nursing content of electronic patient records.

For further information, please email papa.ukintl.dept@rcn.org.uk