Confidentiality and Physicians' Health. A Cross‐sectional Study of University Hospital Physicians in Four European Cities (the HOUPE‐study)

Abstract

Whether confidentiality is a stressor in its own right or an amplifier of stressful situations in medical practice should be further investigated to gain a better understanding of the effect of confidentiality on physicians' coping, stress and health. In addition, there is a need to investigate how physicians can balance coping with the inevitable emotional demands of medical practice and maintaining the ethics of confidentiality in a way that protects both patients' privacy rights and physicians' health and wellbeing.