Copying labs

[wanabemurse]

I'm doing a case study on which there is a question that's left me stumped. Would a nursing student be able to make a copy of a patient's labs for a post-clinical discussion as long as there were no identifying pt data? Or is pt info not allowed to leave the unit period?

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

I can only answer from my clinical experience when I was in school. We could NOT make copies of anything from the patients chart. Nothing regarding the patient could have a copy made of it. That was my school's policy, not sure if the hospital also had the same policy but no matter where we went for clinicals (hospital, nursing home, clinics etc) we could not make copies of pt info. Oh and for the smart alec's who took cell phone pics of the info..since they said it wasn't a "copy", the school also added, no cell phones allowed on the floors at all.

We could write down the labs etc, but only on a piece of paper, no copies.

Best place to get the correct answer for your school policy is your school. Ask your clinical teacher, she/he should know the answer.

[wanabemurse]

thanks for your reply :dancgrp:

[caliotter3]

We were allowed to make copies by unit personnel and our instructors as long as we obliterated identifying data; but mind you, that was around 20 years ago, when there was not such a push about privacy violations. I doubt that it is allowed at that school today.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

This depends on agency policy. At all of the sites I have been to, we were allowed to print information (such as labs) as long as we either took a black sharpie and crossed out any pt identifiers or cut off the information.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

I dont know about your school or hospital policy, but we were allowed to take patient information home so we could work on our projects and assignments. Before we could take stuff home...our instructor collected our patient's info and used white-out or scissors to remove their names. As long as no one can identify the patient you should be fine.