Nurse Posts About a Patient on Facebook ... Duty to Report?

Nurses HIPAA

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Question for you all:

If a nurse posts a Facebook status about their patient, blatantly mocking the reason for their admission (i.e., an embarrassing reason), most people would agree this is a HIPAA violation even if the patient was not ID'ed by name.

But do fellow nurses have a duty to report this nurse in any way to management or to the state BON?

Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.

Oh, get over it. Quit looking for reasons to report someone or cause trouble. Its only a violation if its personally identifiable info. As long as personally identifiable info isn't there, its not violating anything. This HIPAA stuff is getting way out of hand. Why must so many people go overboard? If its a small town and you mention the AIDS pt and there is only one person in town with AIDS, its identifiable info. If you live in a town where tons of people have AIDS, you haven't identified anyone.

There are bigger issues to worry about. Quit making life more difficult for nurses than it already is. Do you really think every nurse comes home to their spouse and refuses to answer the question or vent when asked how their day was? They weren't telling the patients next of kin without permission. Come on, enough already! Quit trying to get your coworkers in trouble and work with them as a team.

Did you bother to ask your coworker about the post or discuss your concerns with your coworker? Or was it more important to find out if you could tattle on her? And not just a tattle to the boss, but to people above that.

OMG...ARE YOU GOING TO GO TO MY PROFILE, TRACK ME DOWN, AND REPORT ME TO MY EMPLOYER FOR LIKING THE ABOVE POST??? Or are you going to stop trying to control other people and get a life, or work on your own issues? :-)

Specializes in ER/Emergency Behavioral Health....

I often have fun work stories. My friends get a kick out of some of them.

I always make a point to never mention any names or any information about the patient other than the silly thing they said or he gross thing I saw.

One story happened that got news exposure. They know I was there that night. Unfortunately, the whole city (and probably nationally) knows all about that because it was heavily covered.

I am pretty sure I haven't violated any HIPAA laws. And I never post on social media, nor do I have it listed there where I work.

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