This chapter addresses the topic of the information we receive about or from patients and introduces the concepts of privacy and confidentiality in relation to the management of patient information. It also sets out your legal requirements for mandatory reporting, including reporting harmful conduct of health professionals and others.

The above case demonstrates the complexity of caring for people and how easily private and sensitive information recorded about a patient in their interests can result in a breach of confidentiality and unprofessional conduct. Kate appropriately recorded very personal information that Ross had disclosed to her because she judged it relevant to his care. Yet other nurses perceived this to be a source of curiosity and gossip, and in sharing this with a nurse not involved in his care, had acted unprofessionally and breached Ross’s confidentiality. Their conduct was therefore unethical, and disciplinary action should have been taken (see the section on mandatory reporting below).

This book has been written specifically for nurses training and practising within Australia, to assist and encourage them to develop a strong and well-defined sense of professional and moral identity. It endeavours to provide an integrated, practical framework for understanding the ethical and legal dimensions of nursing practice in Australia by referencing Australian law and reflecting the Australian clinical context and cultural norms.

This book refers to ‘patients’ rather than ‘clients’. The question of which term is most appropriate is not easily resolved – if it can be at all – because there are many ways to interpret both terms. Consequently, we have made the decision to use the term ‘patients’ because it best approximates our use of the concept of vulnerability.

In every aspect of life, during all ages, energy has been one of the major essentials for human beings. When we eat, the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in food furnish the calories needed by our bodies. Livestock utilize energy from the food that they eat in terms of producing labor and products such as meat, milk, or eggs. There has always been a need for energy to carry objects from one point to another. Invention of the wheel made this easier. But the task still required energy, and it still does.

Hydropower is one of the renewable technologies that has been utilized for centuries. In the early stages of the use of hydropower, energy from water was harnessed to do mechanical work in agriculture and forestry. In ancient Greece, water wheels were used for grinding wheat. The Egyptians used the Archimedes screw for irrigation purposes. The foundation for transitioning to electrical energy from mechanical energy dates back to the 1750s when the French engineer Bernard Forest de Bélidor published L’architecture hydraulique (Hydraulic architecture) [].

Over millions of years, buried organisms such as prehistoric animals and plants have decomposed under pressure and heat from the Earth’s crust. The pressure from the rocks and the heat from the crust transformed the decaying organic material into fossil fuels. This transformation resulted in three different kinds of fuels: oil (petroleum), coal, and natural gas. Fossil fuels are the world’s primary energy source.

Energy from the Sun can be utilized in many ways. The hydrologic cycle is driven by the Sun. It is this cycle that provides water to gain potential energy and be used in harvesting energy at the dams built on rivers for hydropower generation. It is again the sunlight that is absorbed by chlorophyll pigments in plants to initiate photosynthesis which yields energy in the form of carbohydrates. The plants eventually become biomass which is another source of energy. Other forms of energy, which are directly or indirectly related to the energy from the Sun, also exist.

The word geothermal is a combination of two words: geo meaning earth, and thermal meaning heat related, with both words originating from Greek. Geothermal energy, therefore, is the energy that is extracted from the Earth. Geology is the science that studies the physical structure of the Earth, the substances that the structural features are formed of, and the processes that act on the formations. Besides the Earth, the scope of geology can include study of other planets such as Mars, or natural satellites such as the Moon. To better understand geothermal energy, one would first need to have a good understanding of the geological structure of the Earth. The Earth is made up of three layers, which are the core, the mantle, and the crust, from the center to the surface.

Energy use is increasing along with the growth in population and the changes in our energy consumption habits. This brings up the question: How can we better prepare for a future so that we use less energy? This question can be answered with two phrases: energy conservation or energy efficiency. The two terms may seem similar; however, there is a basic difference between the two, which results from quality engineering. Energy conservation is an action of using less energy, either through personal choice, or because of necessity. Energy efficiency, on the other hand, is the engineering outcome of technologies that consume less energy to conduct the same function without giving up the standards. Turning off the lights in the evening, when there is a need for light, is energy conservation.

Energy engineering has a multidisciplinary nature including disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, civil, and environmental engineering that study the theory and applications of energy systems. The theoretical aspects of such applications stretch over these disciplines. In this chapter, the theoretical basics of five major fields are covered to help engineers and professionals have an understanding of how each discipline and field is associated with energy. The fields covered are electrodynamics, chemical energy conversion, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. It is important to keep in mind that each individual field is a wide ocean, and there are many textbooks written on each field. This chapter is intended to give the reader some brief information on each field accompanied by pertinent equations.

Nuclear energy is one of the key players in the energy world due to its immense potential to deliver energy and it being free of greenhouse gas emissions. It is not an intermittent energy source. While the construction cost is high, operating costs are lower than its rivals such as coal and natural gas. It does, however, come with the obvious question of whether or not it is safe, especially after several notable accidents of the past 40 years, which we will examine in this chapter. The other concern about nuclear energy is nuclear waste, which is harmful to the environment and takes a long time to degrade. Following the last significant nuclear trauma, the Fukushima accident, there has been increasing motivation, research, and investment in nuclear energy. Improvement of the technology requires progress in various fields including exploration of new fuel resources, development of advanced reactor designs, more economic, safe, and sustainable waste management methods, and enhancement in the use of nuclear fusion for energy generation.

Biomass is organic material that comes from plants and animals. It can be defined as organisms that are living or have recently died, and the byproducts of these organisms. It is a renewable source, and it is known to be the oldest source of energy for human beings, after the Sun. Biomass also gets its energy from the Sun. For instance, during photosynthesis, sunlight gives plants the energy they need to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugars. These sugars are carbohydrates, and they supply the plants with energy. They are a good source of energy for animals and humans as well. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants and some other organisms convert sunlight into chemical energy. The chemical energy is stored in carbohydrate molecules, such as sugars.