HIPAA privacy problems

[Plagueis]

Hi, everyone. Some friends of mine, and myself, work in nursing homes/hospitals, and we are still confused about what exactly constitutes a HIPAA violation. We know that we can't discuss who is in the hospital, and a patient's/resident's behavior with our families and friends outside of work, but we disagree about how far that goes. For instance, one new nurse wanted to know what would happen if she got injured at work, say by a patient or resident, would that mean she can't tell her husband she got injured by a patient because it would violate that patient's/resident's privacy? One other person said that she couldn't even mention the injury at all to her family, as that would be a privacy violatation, but I thought that was unrealistic, since what if the injury is obvious, such as a broken arm? The family would, naturally, want to know how that happened. Another person said that saying she got injured by a patient, without mentioning the patient's name, was okay. So now I'm wondering: what exactly are the HIPAA privacy guidelines about this hypothetical problem? Thanks.

[Cute_CNA, CNA]

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/

A link for you.

I would say to my husband that a patient injured me, say whether the person was male or female, and how I got injured, but I wouldn't give any other information to my husband. How could anyone find out who it is based on that general bit of information?