All Respiratory Therapist students are held to the professional, legal, and ethical parameters of the Health Information Privacy and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Students must always respect the rights of the patients. These rights include the right to privacy, the right to dignity, the right to confidentiality of information, and the right to a sympathetic and compassionate understanding of the fears and insecurities which go along with being ill and hospitalized. The patient should always be treated as an individual of worth and dignity. The behavior of the student should inspire calm and confidence in the patient and should never be abrupt, hostile, condescending, or in any way unsettling to the patient.