HIPAA Violation Help

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Hi guys!

I am a new nurse and just have a question about HIPAA. Of course, my nursing school thoroughly scared me about HIPAA and I never want to mention anything about my patients to anyone. As a new nurse, when I get off of work, my friends and family of course want to know how my day went and how my patients were. I always just say my day was good and busy.. never mention anything about my patients. So my family and friends really don't have a good understanding of the kinds of things that I really do everyday and I am really proud of the work that I do. I would like to explain more to them without of course violating patient privacy in any way at all. I have been reading about HIPAA on the internet and have actually read that even if information does NOT have identifiable information like names, addresses, social security number, etc, it can be a HIPAA violation. So my question is, how can I really explain what I do everyday without violating HIPAA? I take care of patients with actually very rare diagnoses so I feel as though I cannot even discuss that without identifiable information like names and such. For example, my friend texted me after work the other day and asked me how work was. I was really proud of myself because I am on orientation with a preceptor and took care of two very sick patients by myself-- and they both had really interesting/rare conditions. My friend (who also went through nursing school) asked me what these patients had. I really wanted to tell her and discuss my experience without of course names and all that, but I didn't because of HIPAA. Could I have told her this information? Right now, I honestly feel like I work for the CIA and have to keep everything top secret. So I am just trying to figure out a good way to vent about my day and hard situations that I face as a new nurse and a way to explain to my family and friends what I do so that they can appreciate the work that I do and understand how special it is to me. Is there a way to do this? Please help!

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Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.

Working in psych long before HIPAA Existed, this is old hat. In general, vent to your coworkers, not family & friends. Never, ever text any information to a friend, as once you text it, you have no control over where it goes and who sees it.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

A way to explain to my family and friends what I do so that they can appreciate the work that I do

Those outside of healthcare will rarely if ever get what you do.. The sad thing is, many outside of healthcare think nursing is for fluffing pillows, empty bedpan and pass meds. They don't understand we do so much more than that. I talk about my day or night with my family but not a lot, one they don't understand what Im talking about even if the DX is given. They don't have my education to understand what it means. Also someone sick or dying is not something normal people wants to hear at the dinner table. I will talk about my "crazy" pt that tickled me, pulled out 10 IV's or the person that wanted a hug before I left work, or I got an IV in someone after 7 people tried.. I try to keep it light :)

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There's nothing wrong with telling your family stories so long as you keep it light and tell people you trust - mom dad husband, etc. I wouldn't tell stories while out in public.

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I talk about my day to my other nurse friends and my family. They would have no way of identifying anyone from what I say. No full details but something that would be applicable to any patient in the situation. For example- to say that your patient had angioedema and the doctor's thought it might be stroke but you caught the symptoms early, helped get the patient treated, and yikes he almost croaked but in the end was saved. That is pretty anonymous but gives a picture of your shift and your other nurse friends may learn something from it. That is how I knew how to recognize and treat this- another nurse how a patient had died from undertreated lisinopril induced angioedema and that was in my head when my patient was spiraling. If that nurse had not told me the story, then my patient probably would have died too.

Now your patients have very unique diseases and conditions so you would have to be very vague and careful. I know in many books where docs/nurses tell of their experiences they change age, gender, occupations, etc of their patient to make them unrecognizable and not violate privacy. For example, I might tell you that my patient was a woman in her 40s traveling here from Fiji with a unique accent that made it difficult to recognize her changed speech patterns.

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This will explain it all to you. Agree that you CAN'T really trust anyone in your family or friends not to spread info-- "My daughter / friend / wife SummerLei works at General Hospital on a medical floor and she told me about a situation last week when ...." and as luck would have it, one of the people overhearing this conversation in the coffee shop was your angioedema patient's mother-in-law, and the fecal material is now in the impeller, all blowing your way.

https://allnurses.com/hipaa-nursing-challenges/answer-hipaa-violation-693686.html

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Thanks guys for the responses!

They were all really helpful!!

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