Should nurses post on social media, HIPAA violation?

Nurses General Nursing

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As I am sure many of you guys know by now, recently an ER nurse posted a video on Facebook regarding the flu.

She went on a long rant on how people should be vaccinated for the flu and that people should not have visitors in the hospital during flu season in the ER. Additionally she jokingly showed the viewers how to sneeze into their elbow to avoid spreading germs.

She was also kind of cracking jokes about patients and situations she has]d witnessed while working in the ER.

I am curious your guy's opinions. Do you feel that her posting on social media violated hipaa and what is your opinion on these types of videos or posts?

My personal opinion is this, I do agree with a lot of what she was saying regarding spreading the flu and primarily staying home while you have the flu to prevent getting others sick. I personally don't think she violated hipaa as she did not mention any patients names or anything that would be able to identify them.

However, based on a recent article I read, someone turned her into the board for violating HIPAA and I would love to hear what you guys think.

Comment below!

But she did violate HIPAA as the caption of the picture said "man vs train" or something like that. So unless NYC has 500 people hit by trains every day, it was a HIPAA violation because as soon as that name hit the papers/news everyone would know who they treated in that trauma room.

Okay, I did not realize the caption myself I just watched the video and found it funny!

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Ah, but she wasn't fired for violating privacy laws, she was fired

because the post was "insensitive".

But I don't think she was fired? I just heard she was reported but not fired?

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They were referring to the ER nurse NurseCard mentioned: ‘New York Med’ nurse fired for ‘insensitive’ Instagram shot | New York Post

(and *HIPAA on my original post that I can't edit now. :facepalm:)

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If she didn't post any personal information about patients or any pictures of patients then no I do not feel it is a Hippa violation.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Definitely not a HIPAA violation. Possibly not the smartest choice to post such a video even so.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Neuro/Oncology floor nursing..

Yeah the nurse that was fired in NYC for the trauma room photo was Katie Duke from NY med/NY ER. I watched the episode where she was fired and they indeed fired her because the photo was insensitive even though she was posting it because she wanted to show the extraordinary things going on in that ER. She has since found another job in another Manhattan hospital.

As for the video the nurse posted about the flu I don't think she did anything wrong. Some people lack commonsense and need to be told to not bring a whole sports team into the ER to visit a teammate while the flu is killing people around the country...that goes double for the guy she mentioned that let his toddler crawl on the filthy hospital floor. Now would I post such a video? Absolutely not. But I keep a lot close to the vest when it comes to social media. I use facebook to post photos of my cats and my nephew that's about it.

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Alex was asking for our opinions on the matter. Alex also mentioned that she did not think that the nurse(who posted on social media) violated HIPAA. So why are you guys attacking her????Anyways, I also don't think that the nurse who posted on social media violated HIPAA but see nowadays you have to be extra careful because some people will always try to get you in trouble for no apparent reason.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I was waiting for someone to post about her video. It was somewhat funny, but I could see how people would be offended and I wondered if she was going to face any repercussions at work. I don't think it was very smart on her part.

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Specializes in MCH,NICU,NNsy,Educ,Village Nursing.
I truly am curious, why do you believe it is a bad idea if she isn't posting any personal patient info?

You didn't ask me, but I'll chime in here. She specifically stated a softball team showed up.....any member of that softball team, if they are on FB, has probably already been able to identify themselves through the nurse's comments on social media, and if she also shared that story on the two entertainment/news sites, she went even further in "outing" a group of people who could be identified, along with the patient they were there to visit. Her 15 minutes of fame may cost her more than it's worth. Very unprofessional. Yeah, I get that it's frustrating, but if nothing else, professionalism requires a certain level of decorum that she didn't demonstrate.

Because the FB video has gone viral, plus her interviews on the news programs, etc., there is the likelihood that someone somewhere will be able to identify those patients.

Not a smart move on her part, in my opinion.

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She absolutely did not say anything about vaccinations. As an aside, I rather enjoyed her video and shared it to my own timeline.

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You didn't ask me, but I'll chime in here. She specifically stated a softball team showed up.....any member of that softball team, if they are on FB, has probably already been able to identify themselves through the nurse's comments on social media, and if she also shared that story on the two entertainment/news sites, she went even further in "outing" a group of people who could be identified, along with the patient they were there to visit. Her 15 minutes of fame may cost her more than it's worth. Very unprofessional. Yeah, I get that it's frustrating, but if nothing else, professionalism requires a certain level of decorum that she didn't demonstrate.

Because the FB video has gone viral, plus her interviews on the news programs, etc., there is the likelihood that someone somewhere will be able to identify those patients.

Not a smart move on her part, in my opinion.

She stated that she changed the situation. She could have just as well been talking about church members visiting.

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Specializes in MCH,NICU,NNsy,Educ,Village Nursing.
You didn't ask me, but I'll chime in here. She specifically stated a softball team showed up.....any member of that softball team, if they are on FB, has probably already been able to identify themselves through the nurse's comments on social media, and if she also shared that story on the two entertainment/news sites, she went even further in "outing" a group of people who could be identified, along with the patient they were there to visit. Her 15 minutes of fame may cost her more than it's worth. Very unprofessional. Yeah, I get that it's frustrating, but if nothing else, professionalism requires a certain level of decorum that she didn't demonstrate.

Because the FB video has gone viral, plus her interviews on the news programs, etc., there is the likelihood that someone somewhere will be able to identify those patients.

Not a smart move on her part, in my opinion.

Okay. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. I still think it was unprofessional.

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