Ethical Question

I couldn't tell you what I'd do without more information.

Why did the coworker take a picture of the blood and show it to you? Where was the blood? Was the patient in the picture?

Regardless of laws or policies, would you want someone turning the evidence of your lowest point into a form of entertainment and gossip?

What was the point of the other coworker showing you the picture? In what capacity or conversation was this picture shown? How was the conversation initiated? Were you asking probing questions about the patient after you had taken care of them? If the picture was a completely random context and nothing to do with the care of the patient... Did you ask why the coworker had the picture and of what use was it? Did you tell the coworker that it likely was a ethical violation to have that picture?

I ask you these questions becuase the way you posed the questions leaves so many unanswered questions and potential for many mamy senarios.

Veering to a side topic...I've been thinking of this for a couple of days so I'll put it out there; might get slammed. ?

We actually have not been told that there was an idea of sheer entertainment involved. I wouldn't be surprised if there was, but just the same let me ask a theoretical question:

Is this fundamentally different than someone saving/showing a couple of people one of those "worst day ever" printouts from crash cart monitor? Or holding onto the napkins upon which the timeline of trying to save someone's life had been hastily scrawled? I have seen people take a pic of a whiteboard with similar details. I was once shown a pyxis/omnicell print-out which had been used to try to reconcile/chart everything done in a particularly bad scenario; it was about a several-feet-long+ list of meds pulled over the course of a short period of crisis. What about hanging onto/showing a couple of other people a "brain sheet" from a particularly memorable/tragic day?

Is it fundamentally different than someone telling a couple of coworkers "there was so much blood..." or something similar?

Aside from "entertainment," bragging, etc., why would (often otherwise reasonable and compassionate) nurses ever do any of this?

JKL33:

Exactly. Interesting thoughts.. sometimes I think we a nurses supress some of our feelings of grief, outrage, stress, etc in different ways. Maybe this coworker had care for this patient a while and was trying to cope with the incident.

I too do not think it was just for entertainement or mocking a patient, etc...

20 hours ago, Kooky Korky said:

Why and how could OP make sure the coworker deleted the picture. How is this OP responsible to make sure the goofball coworker actually deleted it?

How about something along the lines of "co worker, its not appropriate to take a picture of that, you need to delete it and dont do it again". People do dumb stuff, i'd rather not throw them under the bus without giving them a chance to rectify that

if the person chooses not to delete it , that is absolutely and utterly on the person who took the photo, and they need to be made aware of the consequences of repeating that action

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HR and Management would not give her a 2nd chance - not without a reprimand, at least, to go along with that 2nd chance.

And thats why I'm not a manager.

Like I said, i'd give a co worker a second chance, and ensure they know what they did wrong and let them know if they do it again, i'd have no choice but to esculate the matter

If they did it again I would escuate the matter.

While strange, what was violated? Was HIPAA violated?

11 hours ago, ArmyRntoMD said:

While strange, what was violated? Was HIPAA violated?

At an absolute minimum, I'd guess that 100% of employers have a policy against that sort of thing.