Do you think I could get kicked out?

Nurses HIPAA

Published

So I went to clinical prep yesterday and my husband accompanied me up to the unit. As I did my prep he sat by me playing on his iPhone. Anyway someone(s) told my instructor that he was there and that I was supposedly showing him stuff on the chart ( which I was not, I repeat I WAS NOT!!!!) I did not know that I was not allowed to have someone with me. So I now have to go in front of the professional conduct board and I am terrified they will kick me out of the program. I have been an AB nursing student And have never done anything unprofessional!! I am freaking out...and crying a lot because I didnt know I was Breaking the rules. Any advice or anything would help!!

I hope they don't kick you out of for this. Regardless, learn from this , treat every trip to the hospital as a job interview in the future. I don't like the practice of nursing students coming the night before to 'prep' regardless. in real life you don't get 15 hours of 'prep' time and i think its a stupid practice. (my school never made us do it) Just be humble when you go before the board, admit you made a poor choice and that you have learned from it. I wish you the best.

That's just it. She HASN'T learned from the mistake. She's making excuses and blaming everything from the weather, to no AC(which is not hospital or school's problem or concern, while pt safety and the school's contract is), to lay out of the hospital, to schools policy. When did she ever take true responsibilty or concern other than for her concern she would be kicked out of school. What about concern for hospital's reputation and the school's facility contract. I haven't seen any remorse except for herself

Specializes in Rehab.

not to chastise you but im in agreement with everyone else, but the sad part is that it makes me question your judgement as a nurse and at this point i would not want you to care for me, my mother or my daughter, it seems ur making excuses a 20 minute drive i drve a hour a day each way for clinical and for class and the one day i brought my daughter too class for a hour i had gotten the pre approval from my instructor because my daughtter was off, unexpectdly due to catholic school and one of there holidays, but as i say i had pre approval, before i did this and i still felt a bit uncomfortable with this, but i managed being a a-b student like yourself, you need to re-evaluate yourself and just admit your wrong doing and tell them that you will never do it again, but im pretty sure your gonna be dismissed because hippa is no joke, sorry about your situation

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Our clinical area is at a local hospital on an unrestricted floor that anyone has access to, but I was thinking its hot almost 90 degrees in April and our car has no AC. I realize it was a bad judgement call

My advice would be to be sincere and end it there when you meet with them. If they pursue it further give another version of that theme. Avoid even the appearance of excuse-making.

but it's nOt like I did it intentionally.

Don't say that. If you have the right attitude it should be OK. Now you know there are some people with long knives in your clinical group. Something to always be mindful of.

This hospital that is open to the public does not have a place for visitors to check in? I'll take the liberty of answering my own question by saying...I don't think there is any healthcare facility that freely allows any person to saunter onto a patient care area without checking ID first. Granted, it's very easy to get past these security checkpoints and you may not be aware of them but what I'm getting at is that...if your husband stated his name and purpose, I don't think he'd get a visitor's pass.

Oh I totally believe it. My old hospital, the only place they would look at you twice L&D/postpartum. I've been there since I quit working there and been in back hallways, front hallways, nobody looks at you twice.

That said, just because it's something one CAN do, doesn't mean that it's a good idea, and definitely doesn't mean that it's a good idea if you're a guest of the facility being allowed to do your clinicals there.

It really shouldn't have to be said. Don't take your spouse to work with you. Or school. Don't take your kid with you. Don't take your mommy with you. If one of those people MUST go with you, leave them in the lobby. Or the ED waiting room. Or cafeteria.

Specializes in ER/Tele, Med-Surg, Faculty, Urgent Care.
Our clinical area is at a local hospital on an unrestricted floor that anyone has access to, but I was thinking its hot almost 90 degrees in April and our car has no AC. I realize it was a bad judgement call but it's nOt like I did it intentionally.
1. No there are restrictions to who can sit at the nurses stations and access the records, overhear phone conversations etc. & 2. He couldn't wait in the lobby? I live in the southwest and see dogs in cars with windows rolled up and I wonder, who does that, bring the dog and leave in hot car? Why not leave them at home or take them home then run errands, think I know now who does this. 3. And you are not taking responsibility for your actions, as others have pointed out. You are blaming the weather, the car etc. 4. As a student, one of the firts things you were taught was pt confidentiality and you had to sign confidentiality agreement. You might want to read the agreement because IMO you violated it,intentionally or not. As a faculty for 9 years, I would vote to boot you out. You showed severe lack of judgement and I would wonder what else you might do. Would you report a medication error you made? See now I question your integrity. I have had a student jeopardize a clinical site, one I had worked very hard for years to secure and in one short instance, it was almost gone, due to a student she showed up in uniform to a hospital where she was NOT doing clinicals in and was caught bringing in cigarrettes for her husband/pt.and reporteldy she lit them for him and!!!! Students are only to wear uniforms to/at/from clinical site.

Although what happened here was due to thoughtlessness, I hope you don't get thrown out.

But I am curious - - if there was someone who truly thought there was an issue, why was it not addressed on the site at that time??? Who allows a possible breach of privacy to continue indefinitely? Who is the nasty person behind this?

Own up to your thoughtlessness, see it for what it was.

Best of luck!

Ok, everyone I think you all made your point very clear that the OP made a mistake. let's not beat it into pulp juice any longer. I think she gets that she made a mistake, and I bet many of you will ALSO learn from her very mistake.

OP, like many of the other posting, when you face the board don't make any excuses. I really mean NO excuses. (Had a friend who made one excuse and her behind was kicked out because she appeared defensive and unwilling to accept responsibility for her action)

Just look them all in the eyes, and admit what you does was wrong, and you have LEARNED your lesson (Good interview answer too haha). Explain that because of this event, you understand the severity of the situation and will guarantee this will not occur again. Explain how next time you ever have any doubt about something, you will ALWAYs ask for assist first. This will show them that you get safety issue and HIPPA. Be confident, but at the same time show that you have learned a very valuable lesson as a nursing student and will carry on when you become an RN.

Gluck!

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.
You were/are a STUDENT. That means you are on your best behavior at all times. Please, thank you, yes ma'am, no sir when you are in the building. You are a guest there and lucky to be there at that. The nurse can do the same thing, but it reflects more badly on you. I don't know what possessed you to think that was ok. I didn't make such unprofessional lapses in judgement when I was 15 and worked as a cashier, let alone a nurse. I'm sorry if this is rude, but come on really??????

PS even if you stay in the program, the school will be lucky to stay in that facility. If I were educational director of the facility, school would be yanked tomorrow am. Would make me wonder what the h**l they teach there or the quality of the students they accept.

That was another question I had---just where WAS some kind of instructor for these students? (I use plural b/c OP says another student "turned her in") When I was in school ANYTHING you did in a clinical site was under direct supervision of one of our instructors. No WAY were we allowed to show up and "review" charts on our own!

When i was in school, we went the night before, there were NO instructors present.

That was another question I had---just where WAS some kind of instructor for these students? (I use plural b/c OP says another student "turned her in") When I was in school ANYTHING you did in a clinical site was under direct supervision of one of our instructors. No WAY were we allowed to show up and "review" charts on our own!
Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

We would pick up our chart information the night before, do drug cards, etc., look up the diagnosis and do a care plan -- hard for a newbie student to do all that first thing in the morning; however, we always had a staff member who was looking at us, and we had to be in the school uniform. One person who was a CNA and in scrubs got in serious trouble because she was dressed as a CNA, but functioning as a student. So you're not being picked on or treated outside of the norm.

Had I been working, it would not have been pretty. Security would have reviewed hubby's phone to make sure there was no PHI on it, and if there hadn't been, he would have been escorted from the property. If there had been, (if someone thought it would be easier to snap pics of the chart so they didn't have to write all that stuff down), I would have turned the whole mess over to corporate Legal, and you'd not only not be allowed back at the facility, you'd probably be on the receiving end of a HIPAA lawsuit.

This stuff is serious. Don't treat it lightly.

Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Just to let OP know: there is no such thing as "unrestricted floor" in any hospital nowadays. If nurses don't seem to care who is doing what around them, then there must be a dozen of cameras per square inch and some security guys watching them 24/7. There are too many junkies who would kill for pills, too many crazy family squabbles and too many lawyers who hire innocently-looking folks to hang around patients' rooms looking for anything which can be made into "evidence" in order to make anything "unrestricted" in any other way than in words. I'd seen a nice "relative" of little-visited demented client chatting with nurses at all times and bringing them coffee... turned out, he saw nurses pushing Pixes buttons and tried to get into machine.

I am surprised that your husband IPhone was not confiscated. Do not take this situation easy, and FORGET about that 90 degrees hot and no AC in the car, because all that doesn't justify potential HIPPAA and security breach.

+ Add a Comment