When I was studying, I was amazed to find out that the privacy laws don't set limits on loud talking between health workers in a crowded room. The privacy rule, "is not a strict one."
I was deeply disturbed at work when the charge nurse would ask me for report right at the nurses counter in front of any visitor or outsider who happened to walk by.
I was too shy to argue or confront them about this, ie. Could we carry this discussion to the other room where people can't listen in?
I was even more disturbed to find out that if I close the door to a patient's room to talk with them about which diaper they should use or any similar thing, this made me stand out from my co-workers and two co-workers demanded that I leave the door open, even when closing it calmed my patient down.
The law also allows nurses to share private patient information with abusive family members, even if they are a wide-open gossip and routinely spread rumors about the patient all over town :uhoh21: (a true-to-life case scenario)
This law applies, even when a family member's abuses of the patient include rape and even when they are literally driving them insane.
A patient's parents, siblings, and children can get private health information about them even when they are not qualified to have it and even if they don't have any genuine concern for the patient and only want to control them or make a spectacle out of them.
When you add to this that there are some ignronant nurses who strictly follow the legal guidelines
with no recognition that this is a threat to their patient and some relatives who are convincing liars,
I guess hospitals are not always a safe place to be.
Even a patient who can speak for themselves can't always convince their caregivers to save their faces.