Is this Facebook status Hipaa compliant?

mushyrn, BSN, RN · Sep 27, 2017

An adult would _____?

marylou5 · Sep 28, 2017

Stay off of Facebook is the absolute best advice.... as well as never discussing patient issues with friends or strangers...funny or otherwise!

You won't ever be guilty of a HIPPA Violation which is a serious offense and could have license consequences.

Surely you can find something else to talk about on FB without involving those whose privacy you are obligated to protect!

crnfaIwillbe · Dec 20, 2017

I use facebook mainly for dog pictures, recipe videos, and travel pictures. I once made a post that could be a hipaa violation and immediately deleted it, but that doesnt take away from it being a big mistake. Please learn from my mistake and dont talk about work on social media.

allnurses Guide · Dec 21, 2017

So, I like to post things that happen to me that I find funny.
Is this FB status okay in terms of HIPPA?
"First day of clinical and I had a patient tell me that they liked my hair which was really nice to hear because I had to put no less than 53 bobbypins in it to make it look presentable. Oh, and they also said I'd make a beautiful nun!"
Also, am I allowed to quote a patient if I put no other information about them?

In this day and age I just fail to see why anyone would talk about work or school in any fashion on face book, twitter or Instagram - We hear about nurses fired all the time not worth the risk. I stick with recipes and funny dog and cat videos.

Hppy

Orca, ADN, ASN, RN · Dec 22, 2017

It never ceases to amaze me how many people treat Facebook conversations with friends as if they are the only ones who can read them. I have found out far more than I ever wanted to know about several friends from conversations that I wasn't even participating in.

I don't discuss work at all. That is just common sense, IMO. You never know who is reading.

MunoRN, RN · Dec 25, 2017

I think the main thing to remember is that Facebook is a place where you share things about yourself, what happens at clinicals or while working as a nurse isn't about you, it's about the person you're taking care of. If you can't recognize that important difference then you'll likely end up getting kicked out of school or losing your job.

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · Jan 14, 2018

Agree. There were some nursing students a couple of years ago that made news by taking a picture with....a placenta. They were all booted.
Nursing Students Kicked out for Placenta Photos - CBS News

I was telling someone about that the other day. One student sued to get the expulsion overturned. Even though it appears she was reinstated to school, I don't know whether she ever finished school and got licensed, or if she did and was able to get hired. She had planned to move to Virginia and work there, but there's no evidence of a VA RN nursing license issued to her. At least not under that first name.

All you have to do is Google her name and you can see the lasting damage a poorly thought out Facebook post can do. And considering it's common for employers to do a web search on prospective employees...

Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM · Jan 20, 2018

Obviously you are excited about your first day in clinical. In this particular post...no, it wasn't a HIPAA violation, but it was not a good idea.

I never, ever say anything about my work on my Facebook page. If you keep this up, you'll eventually slip and get kicked out of the program.

HIPAA is not complex or hard and I tell students this all the time. Specific patient information is not necessary in order for it to be a HIPAA violation. All you have to have is enough information to reasonably identify the patient.

Example:

Let's say you are doing a clinical rotation at John Hopkins University Hospital in the pediatrics department. You are in a nursing program and have this program listed on your Facebook profile. Hundreds of nurses, students, former students, alumni and patients know that your nursing program does clinical rotations at John Hopkins University Hospital.

So, you post on Facebook when you get home from clinicals on, let's say, January 15th:

"Nothing worse than a parent losing a child at such a young age. To be able to offer this family support reminds me of why I became a nurse."

So on January 17th, an obituary appears in the paper where a child died at John Hopkins Hospital, showing the death to be January 15th. Childs name is Julie Doe who is 9 years old.

It just happened to be the only pediatric death that day in the hospital.

Congratulations, you have just made a HIPAA violation. Now, everyone knows that you took care of Julie Doe on the day she died and she was a patient at John Hopkins. With the 6-degrees of separation of Facebook, a family member of the patient may see this before they are told.

This is the type of things that will get you dismissed from a nursing program or fired from a job.

You also never, ever look at any patient file unless you are taking care of the patient that day, pulling it up for a school assignment, or need to pull it up to help a nurse or another provider of that patient. You don't even pull up your own file.

HIPAA is a need to know...if you don't have a legitimate reason to know a patient's information, you stay out of their chart.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 20, 2018

Obviously you are excited about your first day in clinical. In this particular post...no, it wasn't a HIPAA violation, but it was not a good idea.
I never, ever say anything about my work on my Facebook page. If you keep this up, you'll eventually slip and get kicked out of the program.
HIPAA is not complex or hard and I tell students this all the time. Specific patient information is not necessary in order for it to be a HIPAA violation. All you have to have is enough information to reasonably identify the patient.
Example:
Let's say you are doing a clinical rotation at John Hopkins University Hospital in the pediatrics department. You are in a nursing program and have this program listed on your Facebook profile. Hundreds of nurses, students, former students, alumni and patients know that your nursing program does clinical rotations at John Hopkins University Hospital.
So, you post on Facebook when you get home from clinicals on, let's say, January 15th:
"Nothing worse than a parent losing a child at such a young age. To be able to offer this family support reminds me of why I became a nurse."
So on January 17th, an obituary appears in the paper where a child died at John Hopkins Hospital, showing the death to be January 15th. Childs name is Julie Doe who is 9 years old.
It just happened to be the only pediatric death that day in the hospital.
Congratulations, you have just made a HIPAA violation. Now, everyone knows that you took care of Julie Doe on the day she died and she was a patient at John Hopkins. With the 6-degrees of separation of Facebook, a family member of the patient may see this before they are told.
This is the type of things that will get you dismissed from a nursing program or fired from a job.
You also never, ever look at any patient file unless you are taking care of the patient that day, pulling it up for a school assignment, or need to pull it up to help a nurse or another provider of that patient. You don't even pull up your own file.
HIPAA is a need to know...if you don't have a legitimate reason to know a patient's information, you stay out of their chart.

There's a Johns Hopkins University Hospital? I did not know that.

The rest of your post was spot on. I would add that Charge nurses have a reason to pull up that patient to check on your charting and read the notes, and anyone who is doing a chart audit as well.