Facebook and small town nursing

taggart84 · Nov 14, 2014

I would untag myself when necessary and move on. It's their story too. They don't have to follow HIPPA, they are the owners of their information. As such, they are legally allowed to tell their story on social media and mention you. I would tell them that I'm grateful for the recognition but I can't be tagged. Don't comment on any statuses that involve their health care obviously, but it doesn't sound like you could be held accountable under the privacy laws if that's what you're worried about.

RN403, BSN, RN · Nov 15, 2014

If it is the tagging of pictures that is your main concern, you can change your settings so that you must approve which pictures you are tagged in. If someone were to attempt to tag you in the ir picture it would not go through until you approve it (or deny it).

caliotter3 · Nov 15, 2014

If you do not have a Facebook account for yourself, then no employer or other third party can bring action against you for what goes on Facebook.

toomuchbaloney · Nov 15, 2014

As a small town home health nurse I am in the position where I know everyone and everyone and their uncle know me and my family so since I have been on Facebook a number of years I have found myself frequently involved in care for patients either on my Facebook friends list or their family. During that process I will have sweet patients and their family wanting to thank me, etc and I feel it to be a serious gray line regarding HIPAA. I explain to the patient that it is really not appropriate to mention me as their nurse or to try and take pictures of me (which has happened frequently with me not allowing) but it always happens. If I am tagged I will hide it, but other than shutting down Facebook all together I don't know how to stop it. Like I said, I have so many people on my facebook from my town that I would have to delete all of them pretty much. I enjoy facebook and do not involve work in my statuses so tell he how you have handled this when it comes up.

Trust me, I understand your situation.

You just cannot speak about your work on your facebook in public status changes if you ever want to have peace of mind about HIPAA issues.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2014

The patient can share whatever information he wants about his medical care. I had an MRI on Monday. I have access to the report through an online patient site. If I wanted to (I do not, as there are hundreds of people on my friend list that I don't care to share this information with) I could copy the entirety of the report and post it on my facebook, as well as tag the location that it was done. The facility where I had it done cannot post anything about me (obviously) nor could any staff. But I can do whatever I want with my information.

I have not had this problem as I work inner city and am not friends with any of my patients or their parents on facebook. If any of them were to ask me to be their friend, I would simply not respond to the friend request. If someone I was already friends with (or their child which is more likely and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it happens) became my patient, I would do everything I already do on facebook and not talk about work. If said person were to tag me in anything, I would remove the tag and hide the story from my timeline/newsfeed.