frustrating coworkers

[ICURN27]

Hey All,

So I work in a facility and have been upset about the lack of professionalism present among its staff. Without getting too specific, one of the major things that bothers me is the fact that many of the nurses on this unit post photos of themselves with their patients (nicu babies) and some even include first names of those babies... on facebook! It blows me away. This cannot be legal right? It seems like nobody even realizes how bad this is. People are constantly taking pictures of their patients with their phones and either posting them or sending them to eachother. It just sends up so many red flags for me, i hate it. Ok thank you.. just needed to vent :) And yes, I am looking for employment elsewhere.

[meconium happens]

Is management aware of this practice? If so, and nothing is being done, perhaps go up the ladder within hospital administration. This is HIPPA violation and it's only a matter of time before there's a lawsuit...

[umcRN, BSN, RN]

WHILE they are patients???

I have seen coworkers who have seen PAST patients outside the NICU, either because they were in house for a doctors visit or because that particular nurse/family continued to keep in touch after discharge and post those pictures up for people to see with the parents permission (and have seen parents post pictures of their babies with nurses on facebook/blogs etc) but can't imagine just taking a picture of one of my patients and posting it to facebook, that seems like a big liability issue to me

[prmenrs, RN]

It's an absolute HIPPA no-no. Communicate w/management, and keep going up the chain til you find someone who doesn't want to get sued. Risk Management, anyone??

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

We had a couple of incidents like that a few years ago (where nurses were posting pictures of patients on Facebook .... STUPID!) and they were terminated. That is in direct violation of HIPAA and should be immediate termination.

And people are taking pictures with their phones?!?! YIKES!! This needs to be brought up to the unit manager ASAP. I would be horrified if my baby was in this unit and these things were being done.