Nurse looked at my Facebook-HIPAA violation ?

Nurses HIPAA

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I hope it was okay to register here as I am not a nurse however I am familiar with medical terminology because I was previously interested in the field. I suffer from depression and was recently hospitalized at a psych hospital to get my meds back on track. It wasn't a big deal, I was in and out within a week.

Anyway, I had really good rapport with one of the nurses. He was actually the only one who I felt did his job well and knew what he was doing. Well after he gave me my meds and we chatted for a bit (the usual how are you sleeping, any thoughts of harming yourself etc.) I went back up to the nurse's station to ask for water and he was turned the other way...looking at his phone-he had pulled up my Facebook page and was going though my pics! I was shocked of course but I tried to act like I didn't notice. When he saw me he put the phone in his pocket really fast.

It doesn't bother me, but I'm genuinely curious-is it a HIPAA violation for a nurse to simply look at a patient's FB-or only f they add them?

Thanks in advance and again I hope it's okay for me to be here.

Specializes in Critical Care.
I believe I said I actually don't care that he looked. I just found it rather odd that a professional would bother to FB me.

On the one hand I see your point. On the other, I used to work in a job with similar confidentiality rules as nursing where I was told to look people up on Facebook/Twitter/dating profiles/WHATEVER so we could use that information for the purposes of our job. I have never run into a situation through my experience in a hospital where I've had a professional reason to look at a patient's Facebook account though, and have never really even had a desire to do so. I'm guessing he may have been looking because he was curious about you, which would be unsettling to me if I were you, but also is not against the law. Could be against facility policy though.

FaceBook is in no way that I can comprehend protected medical information. It is a social medium where people put private information on the internet accessible by the universe and in some strange way expect privacy

Definitely unprofessional. I would request to not have this nurse take care of you b/c that is just plain creepy.

the RN should at least know not to do this ON THE FLOOR/in CLINIC. Perhaps there was nothing nefarious behind his looking you up (ie, you may be friends with his friend or something), but really, unprofessional.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I believe I said I actually don't care that he looked. I just found it rather odd that a professional would bother to FB me.

I've never worked psych, but I did wonder about your statement about that particular nurse from your original post.

Anyway, I had really good rapport with one of the nurses. He was actually the only one who I felt did his job well and knew what he was doing.

It seems a bit odd to focus on one nurse (and specify that the nurse is male) and proclaim that that nurse was the only one who did his job well and knew what he was doing. I wondered right then whether there was some staff splitting going on (he was the ONLY nurse who knew what he was doing) or if perhaps you weren't becoming more attached to him than was warranted by a strictly professional relationship.

Healthy boundaries are a good thing, as are professional boundaries. Perhaps this nurse was a big lacking in boundaries and/or professionalism. Now as far as the FaceBook page -- if you don't want people looking, you should make it private.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Definitely unprofessional. I would request to not have this nurse take care of you b/c that is just plain creepy.

But he's the ONLY nurse who knows what he's doing or does his job well.

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

There's no HIPAA violation. He did not release any of your protected health information.

I'm also going to go against the general grain and say that his looking up your Facebook page is not a professional boundary issue in itself. After all, your Facebook page is information that YOU chose to make available to the public via the Internet. And it's YOU who controls how much or how little of your information is out there for public consumption. And you can even have no information out there if you wanted to, just by not having a Facebook page at all.

He didn't do anything wrong. Nor would you have done anything wrong, should you have chosen to look his own Facebook page up.

Now, what he does with whatever information found on your Facebook page may or may not cross a boundary. Again, this is information you chose to make public, so it's not as though he was being deceitful in obtaining it. If anything, you supplied the information to the world willingly.

Though I do agree that his friend-requesting you would be crossing a professional boundary, as you currently already have a nurse-patient relationship.

FaceBook is in no way that I can comprehend protected medical information. It is a social medium where people put private information on the internet accessible by the universe and in some strange way expect privacy

This x 1000. It still astounds me that people make their stuff publicly available online (not just via Facebook, but also through websites, blogs, forum posts, groups, etc.) and yet get upset when someone they didn't want to see it ends up finding it. Plus the fact that the Internet is forever--once you put something out there, it's very difficult to retract it.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

No, it's not a HIPAA violation, as I'm pretty sure every other responder already told you. Anything on your Facebook page that you allow by your privacy settings to be seen can be seen by anybody, including your nurse.

I won't even say it was necessarily unprofessional of your nurse to look at your Facebook page. If you had been admitted for a health issue, like appendicitis for example, I would say looking you up on social media crossed a boundary. But, seeing as to how you were admitted for a psych issue looking at your Facebook page could be a very valid thing to do. Your medical team could potentially see posts that pertain to the reason you were admitted, people put all sorts of personal information out there for the world to see on social media and there very well could be posts that could help guide your medical team's plan of care for you. There could also be all sorts of clues on there about what sort of support you may have from friends and family members after your discharge based on how your friends and family respond to you on social media. You might not like that, you might even feel like it's an invasion of your privacy but it's not. You are the one that put that information out there on the internet for anybody to see, what people do with that information is up to them.

Specializes in Case Manager/Administrator.

When I was a manager I would routinely look up the potential recruit's name for any additional information I wanted to know on Facebook/LinkedIn.

If this staff member was attempting to become friends with you while you are inpatient or for that matter outpatient then there maybe some issues. I occasionally run into patients on the street who I recognize I would never approach them, some think I am being rude to them, I am protecting their piracy. If they approach me then it is different I will say hello how are you...I do not talk about their inpatient or outpatient issues.

Specializes in Cardicac Neuro Telemetry.
I've never worked psych, but I did wonder about your statement about that particular nurse from your original post.

It seems a bit odd to focus on one nurse (and specify that the nurse is male) and proclaim that that nurse was the only one who did his job well and knew what he was doing. I wondered right then whether there was some staff splitting going on (he was the ONLY nurse who knew what he was doing) or if perhaps you weren't becoming more attached to him than was warranted by a strictly professional relationship.

Healthy boundaries are a good thing, as are professional boundaries. Perhaps this nurse was a big lacking in boundaries and/or professionalism. Now as far as the FaceBook page -- if you don't want people looking, you should make it private.

Staff splitting came to my mind as well, Ruby Vee. In addition to proclaiming he was the only nurse who did his job and did it well, it makes me wonder what this nurse in question did or didn't do to piss the OP off enough to suggest a HIPAA violation. I have a feeling there is much more to this situation that we don't know.

OP, let this go. Looking at your facebook is not a HIPAA violation. If you are this concerned, set your profile to private or delete your account. Anyone who has a facebook account should be aware that your information is out there for the public to see.

Specializes in Cardicac Neuro Telemetry.
There's no HIPAA violation. He did not release any of your protected health information.

I'm also going to go against the general grain and say that his looking up your Facebook page is not a professional boundary issue in itself. After all, your Facebook page is information that YOU chose to make available to the public via the Internet. And it's YOU who controls how much or how little of your information is out there for public consumption. And you can even have no information out there if you wanted to, just by not having a Facebook page at all.

He didn't do anything wrong. Nor would you have done anything wrong, should you have chosen to look his own Facebook page up.

Now, what he does with whatever information found on your Facebook page may or may not cross a boundary. Again, this is information you chose to make public, so it's not as though he was being deceitful in obtaining it. If anything, you supplied the information to the world willingly.

Though I do agree that his friend-requesting you would be crossing a professional boundary, as you currently already have a nurse-patient relationship.

This x 1000. It still astounds me that people make their stuff publicly available online (not just via Facebook, but also through websites, blogs, forum posts, groups, etc.) and yet get upset when someone they didn't want to see it ends up finding it. Plus the fact that the Internet is forever--once you put something out there, it's very difficult to retract it.

I agree. Looking at the OP's facebook page and only looking isn't violating a boundary. Now, if he started messaging her or friend requesting her, I could see a definite issue. While I don't suggest looking at current or former patients' facebook pages, I don't see this nurse as crossing the line.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
When I was a manager I would routinely look up the potential recruit's name for any additional information I wanted to know on Facebook/LinkedIn.

.

And this is why we tell new grads to clean up/make private/delete their Facebook account before starting the job hunting process.

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