advise needed

[pedsorbust]

i have recently experienced been terminated from my position at a hospital for a HIPPA violation and need some advise.

the incident occurred about two weeks ago on a shift at work. background: i was a pct on a peds cardiology floor and had been there for almost a year. before this position, i worked on a postpartum floor for a year and a half.

i logged into my EPIC account to add some patient vitals into their chart. every time i logged into EPIC i was able to see my old postpartum floor, labor and delivery floor, their exam rooms and the neonatal nurseries. I saw one of our coworkers was on the labor and delivery exam board and mentioned this to the other nurses at the station. i had heard other nurses talking about how she had wanted to get pregnant a week prior. i expressed concern about hoping she was okay.

i later asked if that nurse was okay because i had seen her downstairs and she said she was fine and my day continued on. i also expressed guilt about seeing her name on the board to my other coworkers later and they said to be careful and not to do it again.

last sunday i received a text message from my manager to come to the office on monday to talk about some stuff. i said okay. when i showed up to the office he tells me we're going to

the compliance office and leaves me in his office alone until it's time to

go. one of the nurses who had told me to be careful had reported me.

i tell the officer everything that happened and was honest about

everything. the next day i was fired. when i was fired, my manager said they know that i did not go into her chart but because i mentioned it to my coworkers that i was fired. i have never been in trouble before this

i have heard of people being suspensed on their first offenses and fired after that.

so my question is: what will this do to my career? where should i go from here? i am currently in nursing school and am worried about what this is going to do to me.

[llg, PhD, RN]

It seems to me that the issue isn't that she saw her name on a list for another unit, but rather what she did with that information once she saw it - instead of clicking onto her unit and going about her day, she decided to share with coworkers that Nurse XYZ was on the labor and delivery floor. She didn't know that because of her personal relationship with that nurse, but because of what she saw in EPIC. The sharing of that information is where she went wrong.

Also, she should have reported the fact that she was still seeing her old units to the appropriate manager or IS Department.

[BSN16]

To clarify, i have a list of every department of the hospital as well. it is NOT HIPAA unless you access the chart.

[taivin]

That's fine, but she didn't keep her mouth closed... That's the violation. Chills ran down my spine when I read your post OP. I knew what would happen before you told us. Live and learn. Someone you told doesn't like you.

In nursing gossip can harm. I've learned from very early on to keep my big mouth closed no matter how tempting. Sorry for your hard learned lesson. You'll survive; you have lots of experience.

[nurse.ethel.RN]

It's a violation because the name of the pt she saw, albeit co-worker, was not on her unit. It was logging her into a unit she was no longer working on AND she mentioned it to other co-workers.

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

The fact that the patient was in the hospital is not HIPAA protected unless they requested to be confidential. In that case just talking about her being there would violate her privacy. But if you didn't go into the chart, and she wasn't confidential, you should get a lawyer.

[Apple-Core, ASN, BSN, RN]

I think the best piece of advice here is from the first reply, "What is key here is what you have learned from the situation and what you will do to prevent it in the future". If there's one thing I am really learning from these forums, it is that the best policy, in almost all cases, is to keep your lips sealed.