Hippa

[KatieBird]

*Please excuse the Typo in the header.. darn spell check in word! lol*

I have a question regarding HIPAA. I'm new to the nursing field so please forgive my ignorance.

While doing my clinicals for nursing assistant a friend of mine in the class and I became very attached to one of the residents. Since our class ended, we continue to visit her periodically and we're hoping to give her a nice blanket as a gift for Christmas.

My question is this, is it okay to talk about her? I don't mean her health, her care or anything that had to do with when we were doing our clinicals.. but at what point is it okay to discuss someone who your formerly cared for but now just visit with? I don't want to push any rules or boundries but I also do care about her and my friend and I weren't sure what is and is not okay for us to talk about with each other or say to family members after visiting her.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

At the point at which you are a friend and not involved in her care I would think that you are free to discuss her as you would any friend.

[Batman24]

At the point at which you are a friend and not involved in her care I would think that you are free to discuss her as you would any friend.

Agreed. And it's a really sweet thing the both of you are doing. I bet she is tickled pink that she's getting some extra TLC and that someone cared enough to buy her beautiful blanket. Nice job!! :redbeathe

[Tippy-ta-ta]

I would say that since you no longer care for her and still visit her, you and your friend are able to talk about her you just cannot discuss the care you gave her to anyone else or divulge any information about her condition to anyone outside her caregivers. So in other words if family members ask you about her care or condition refer them to her nurse for answers. That way you do not violate any HIPPA laws.

HIPPA laws are very tricky depending on the type of care the patient is recieving.

[Mr Ian]

She's your friend.

Why don't you ask her?

Then you have consent and covered either way.

[KatieBird]

She's your friend.

Why don't you ask her?

Then you have consent and covered either way.

I don't think we can really do that since she doesn't always remember us. She's 102 so, as she puts it, she's got a lot of memories in there already and just not a lot of room for new ones. :)

She's such a sweet woman. Thanks to the lovely weather we have going on, we haven't had a chance to get out there. That and my friend has left to go home for the holidays. We're thinking next week we'll be able to get out there and hopefully give her the blanket.