new RN dealing with patient privacy issues??

[mo~lyssa]

I have a question about privacy in homecare.

As a peds RN I am required to use my personal email account and must have a cell phone to be conntacted at all times when I am with a pt.

My CCC (supervisor) is always out to catch me doing something wrong. A few months ago I was sent an email saying I have not updated my CCC with an email about our pt in months (required weekly for me). So I resent my emails. She thanked me.

Today I am reminded to delete all emails about pts for privacy issues.

SO how can I protect myself backing up my work and protect my patients at the same time while using my personal email account?

FYI: all my emails use pt ID number and pt initials. I do not identify the pt's full name, addresses or other demographics but I do disccuss specific patient care.

[great_bu]

Just do a periodic backup of your e-mails (export to a file, look in your e-mail programme's help file if you are not sure how) and then save it to an encrypted drive - you can either encrypt the whole drive or just the relevant file (search windows help for how to do this, it depends on what version you have as to how it works but it's fairly stragiht forward either way). After you have the encrypted backup, delete the originals.

That way, you (and only you) can recover any and all old e-mails but they are not stored long term on any open system.