HIPAA violation

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  1. Do I have any chance of becoming a nurse?

    • 3
      No
    • 3
      Yes
    • 4
      Depends on school/program

10 members have participated

I'm in; or was in an LPN program in NY. During clinical, I looked at my mom's chart on the computer (she is a patient at the hospital I was having clinical) with her permission. I was dismissed from the program and the hospital security is currently deciding how to pursue this. Will I ever be able to practice nursing or anything in the medical field again? Stupid mistake, I knew better but my concerns for my mother got the best of me. Not that it matters at all but she is battling cancer. What's going to happen to me? To my future?

Makes me want to give up and just go a different route from the lack of empathy that I thought was a characteristic in all nurses.... I'm depressed and feeling like a lost cause and this thread has only worsened these feelings triple. You never know what someone else is feeling or going through; THAT they did stress to us!!!

People are being honest. Just because you don't like what we are saying doesn't mean we lack empathy. You asked what would happen to you and people have told you. All you can do now is try your best to move on and IF you get accepted into another nursing school, do everything you can to stay out of trouble.

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People are being honest. Just because you don't like what we are saying doesn't mean we lack empathy. You asked what would happen to you and people have told you. All you can do now is try your best to move on and IF you get accepted into another nursing school, do everything you can to stay out of trouble.

It is not that I do not like what I am being told, it's the way it is being told. I appreciate the honesty as that is what I was seeking, but I didn't think some responses would be so rude.

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The OP has NOT violated HIPAA.

The patient and/or the patient's personal representative may access the patient's records. The OP's mother (the patient) gave the OP permission to access her records. The OP was the patient's personal representative. No HIPAA violation.

Your Medical Records | HHS.gov

The OP probably DID violate hospital policy and her school's policy.

The government is not going to come after the OP.

The hospital and school probably will discipline the OP for not following policy.

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The OP has NOT violated HIPAA.

The patient and/or the patient's personal representative may access the patient's records. The OP's mother (the patient) gave the OP permission to access her records. The OP was the patient's personal representative. No HIPAA violation.

Your Medical Records | HHS.gov

The OP probably DID violate hospital policy and her school's policy.

The government is not going to come after the OP.

The hospital and school probably will discipline the OP for not following policy.

The OP was there as a student, (and a guest in the hospital) not as a personal representative of the patient. There is a difference. She has already been disciplined by the school and the school could lose the hospital as a clinical site.

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While I appreciate the educational aspect of this thread, I don't appreciate the lack of mercy, grace, or simple compassion. One person running for President is being investigated for breaking a number of federal laws; chances are high she will not see any punishment given the justice department gave ~$75K towards her campaign. I see more mercy and compassion shown in the recovery-based threads than in threads like this one. Talk about nurses eating their young before even becoming nurses.

P.S. To BuckyBadgerRN, RN with the comment of "Oh, I'll bet it WAS made very clear...," Until someone is in someone's shoes and in the situation, none of us know. Not me, not you. And I know I learned new things from this thread that WERE NOT taught in any of my classes to date (3 semesters down). So while I'm glad to have found out some of this before I made a mistake in this area, don't assume things are black and white when it comes to what is taught in different schools, hospitals, and clinicals. And please consider showing compassion.

Well, that's quite a non sequitur. Congrats on injecting right wing political talking points into a thread that has nothing whatsoever to do with politics.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

You chose the program. Noone forced you into anything. You ARE pointing blame.

Well unfortunately the program lacked a lot of basics, that was not my fault. The fact that a previous instructor allowed us to look at every single pt chat r/t admission can make things a bit confusing... Pointing blame does me no good, but you stating "pulling crap like that" is a bit harsh when you don't know the problems with the program I was in. With that said, yes I know what I did was indeed wrong and I am deeply remorseful and kicking myself for such a stupid mistake that I could have avoided.
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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

I will go to my grave believing that there is no way this wasn't covered, hospitals get into serious trouble for HIPAA violations, no way they are going to not educate anyone with access to medical records, ESPECIALLY students. They'll shut down being a clinical site for nursing schools before that happens.

While I appreciate the educational aspect of this thread, I don't appreciate the lack of mercy, grace, or simple compassion. One person running for President is being investigated for breaking a number of federal laws; chances are high she will not see any punishment given the justice department gave ~$75K towards her campaign. I see more mercy and compassion shown in the recovery-based threads than in threads like this one. Talk about nurses eating their young before even becoming nurses.

P.S. To BuckyBadgerRN, RN with the comment of "Oh, I'll bet it WAS made very clear...," Until someone is in someone's shoes and in the situation, none of us know. Not me, not you. And I know I learned new things from this thread that WERE NOT taught in any of my classes to date (3 semesters down). So while I'm glad to have found out some of this before I made a mistake in this area, don't assume things are black and white when it comes to what is taught in different schools, hospitals, and clinicals. And please consider showing compassion.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

This. And to hopefully educate future/current nursing students.

People are being honest. Just because you don't like what we are saying doesn't mean we lack empathy. You asked what would happen to you and people have told you. All you can do now is try your best to move on and IF you get accepted into another nursing school, do everything you can to stay out of trouble.
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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

People can show empathy in writing by carefully choosing their words; I think it's called therapeutic communication. I know I learned a lot from this thread (positive and negative).

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Thank you for your discussion and your forum post. I greatly appreciate you being very honest and very brave about your situation. It takes courage to be able to verbalize and talk about your issues. I can't say what will happen to you and to your nursing future. Just remember that you have learned a valuable lesson here and have learned from your past mistake. Also, please know that HIPPA is a very hard and touchy subject in that anyone cannot go into any file and look things up; even if it is your own relative. So, just call this as a lesson being learned, hope your mom is feeling better and doing OK from the cancer, and something will work out for you. I wish you the best whether it be back into the nursing program or something else that you want to enjoy. Marcy CNA

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Specializes in ICU, trauma.

OK I think many of you are focused on criticizing the op. We get it she made a mistake and admitted it. I think her question is what can she do from this point.

I would contact a faculty member of whom you trust and ask their advice. I don't think this has ruined your chances of being a nurse. I'm not a lot of help, but hope this helps

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Hospital said they're not doing anything, it's up to the school. School isn't doing anything, I was just dismissed. Screwed up part is, after this happened, instructor had hospital IT pull everyone's history and many others have done the same. They are still in the program. How is that fair??

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