facebook and HIPPA

Nurses General Nursing

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Has anyone known nurses who put pictures of patients to their facebook accounts? Is this even legal?

Specializes in ICU, ER.
I work in LTC and have patients that send me friend requests on FB. Im afraid that if i deny them theyll be offended when i see them at work the next week.But on the other hand Im not sure I want these people to be privy to my nonprofessional life!

I've had ex-pts/family members try to add me in the past too. I'd rather offend someone and just explain to them that I like to keep my professional and personal lives separate and hope they understand.

If not, oh well! They don't have to like me.

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Specializes in ER, cardiac, addictions.
And it's one thing for a patient to post pics of their own injuries and whatnot on their own social media site. But not for a nurse to post someone else's stuff is a whole different thing.

I realize that. I didn't mention that anecdote out of any desire to justify a nurse putting up pictures of patients' injuries. I just mentioned it because it was an interesting example of Facebook's function as a modern (and often more adult) version of Show-and-Tell. :jester:

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At about the same time, we discovered that one person who was asking to be "friended" (she had one of those common names that sounds vaguely familiar to most people)was actually an HR person in disguise, monitoring staff remarks on Facebook for HIPAA violations.

The deception here almost bothers me the most. Looking over your shoulder too much increases your risk of walking into a wall.:twocents:

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
At about the same time, we discovered that one person who was asking to be "friended" (she had one of those common names that sounds vaguely familiar to most people)was actually an HR person in disguise, monitoring staff remarks on Facebook for HIPAA violations.

Wow. I participated in another thread about Facebook a while back, and it seemed the consensus with the mostly young students was sort of "what's the big deal?" just use your privacy settings! It's just this kind of thing that I suspected may be going on. Now I know it is going on.

So I work in pediatric home health. It's very common for nurses to pull out their phone to show me pix of their other "kids". Most tell me the parents wouldn't mind. Makes me wonder-- were the parents even asked?

I work in home health, too. I wouldn't do it, even though as nurses we become almost like family members in the minds of our patient's relatives.

Sometimes the breach of privacy is perfectly innocent, as in a post-chemo party pic in a peds onc unit with the nurse standing next to the child's mom. The mom was fine with it. The hospital was not. Sometimes it is done maliciously as in a recent thread about CNAs taking a picture of an elderly lady sitting on the toilet. A pre-nursing student genuinely wasn't sure if that would be OK or not, though she suspected it would be wrong, she asked us here at allnurses to make sure.

Facebook is so not worth getting fired over!!

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I would never post anything in facebook I wouldn't want the whole world to see. I posted this because I know a nurse who did this wasn't sure what to do.

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I said this on the 'another nurse bites the dust' thread, but I'll say it again.

If you can't look at your social media post, and I mean pictures, statuses, forum posts, anything, and recognize that it could get you in trouble, you shouldn't be using social media at all.

Use of social media is not essential. responsible use of social media is.

and to answer your question with my own opinion, which others may not agree with, but it works for me.. if you've seen something you don't think is right, your actions really depend on how 'not right' it is. if we're talking 'degrading photos of military personnel with naked prisoners', obviously you need to act big. If we're talking 'photo of someone with their favourite patient', maybe a quiet 'are you sure that you should be posting that?' is more appropriate.

I'm not sure whether you're a student, a nurse, a tech or someone else entirely, but if you're not sure, maybe you could talk about it with a manager or instructor or someone. You don't have to say 'i saw ..... do .......' you could just ask generally, just to clarify. personally, that's what I'd do.

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Specializes in Gerontological Nursing, Acute Rehab.

Beyond even the whole Facebook issue, no pictures can be taken of a patient/resident without a signed consent from them or their POA. Period.

Usually this is done on admission, and no, the admission department will not let you know if someone does not want their picture taken.

This includes pictures taken on a phone.

Even if a patient gives verbal consent, you still need a signed consent.

Sounds like some people out there like to play with fire......

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Most hospitals have or in the process of getting a social networking policy. Heed it closely. We have had people fired at the institution I work at.

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