Patient wants to connect on LinkedIn

[otilika]

Hi, I am a nursing student and also work at a hospital. Recently I took care for a patient and on her last day there she told me that is a nurse, that she was very impressed with my care and would like to endorse me and refer me for anything that could help in my future career as a nurse. She told me to find her on Facebook and keep in touch. I said sorry, but I don't Facebook patients; if you want to stay in touch, how about LinkedIn? She said yes, find me on LinkedIn. On my LinkedIn profile I mentioned who my employer is and I am connected with a couple of coworkers. If I add this lady/former patient, could I get in trouble for HIPAA? I think I shouldn't, since the patient is the one who told me to get in touch, but do you think my work place will do anything about that? What would you do? I definitely could use this lady's recommendations and suggestions when I need to find a job.

[elijahvegas, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

All aboard the NopeNope Train next stop ScrewThat-ville

On my badge, I would tape off my name and write over it a nickname. One that isn't connected to any of my social media which coincidentally i disabled most of anyway. So anything short of pretty much seeing me in public and you should work for the FBI if you were able to track me down.