Nurse takes pic of patient's...

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Mar 31, 2016

Nursing ethics failure big time along with HIPAA violation. KUDOS to her colleague that reported issue.

From USA Today:

Nurse surrenders license after taking picture of patient's member

Johnson initially faced a felony charge, but her sentence was reduced after she agreed to give up her license as part of a plea deal. She will also serve three years probation for taking the unlawful surveillance pictures, WRGB-TV reported.

Karou · Mar 31, 2016

What's interesting to me is that if this had been a male nurse taking pictures of his female patients genitals, he would probably have to register as a sex offender. There is more than a HIPAA or ethical violation here! She got probation and surrendered her nursing license. A slap on the wrist.

Jason_K · Apr 1, 2016

What is more disgusting is that on March 2, 2014, she took a video of a nurse cleaning an incapcitated patient's GI blood clot. She then sent the video to the other nurse's phone. The video showed the patient's rectum.
She took a picture of an incapacitated male patient's genitals on August 4.
She continued to work for 5 months after at least 1 other nurse knew she had videoed a patient's rectum.
Either the other nurse didn't report it, or the facility did nothing. Either one is abhorrent.

Beyond abhorrent... either that nurse should also face charges, or if she can prove she reported it via the documentation, who evers job it was to follow up on the report should be charged.

And people wonder why a LOT of people don't trust the medical profession....

Dany102 · Apr 1, 2016

I have to say I was shocked when I read this article. This behaviour, and from a professional nurse, is beyond appalling. I really really want to believe that this is a minority and that, of course, most nurses wouldn't behave that way but...

I get it. Nurses, like most people, are only human and there is no reason to assume they are saints. But this kind of things certainly erode trust and, sadly, reflects poorly on the nursing profession as a whole. I'm glad to see that it was other nurses who reported her. It seems right that her inappropriate actions would be called out by other, more professional nurses.

Like you, Karoo, I have to wonder if she didn't get off a little too easily here... A plea bargain seems to me to be a bit of a cop out. As it was also suggested, swap genders here and ask yourself where it would have gone.

Dany

Anonymous865 · Apr 1, 2016

What she did was absolutely despicable and she should definitely lose her license. However, why does the article give her address? What's the point of that?

In my state at least, the person's home address is on the arrest report. The arrest report is a public record. I frequently see a person's address in the newspaper article about their arrest for crimes such as DUI, theft, arson, child abuse, drugs, etc.

Biker53 · Apr 1, 2016

A question for those here with some experience with licensing boards. Had she not voluntarily given up her license, would the licensing board have revoked it?

Biker53 · Apr 3, 2016

I take no responses to my question about whether her license would have been revoked to mean it probably wouldn't. Not reassuring at all if what she did wouldn't result in it being revoked.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Apr 4, 2016

I take no responses to my question about whether her license would have been revoked to mean it probably wouldn't. Not reassuring at all if what she did wouldn't result in it being revoked.

:no:

It's the weekend; a lot of AN'ers may work the weekend or have lives. :sarcastic:

A lot of times, per the reports from my own BON site, people surrender their license instead of face revocation.

Perhaps you can seek out that info from a BON in your state; however their answer may be that they work on a case by case basis; you can also try to find out if her notice of revocation is available on the NY BON website.

Biker53 · Apr 4, 2016

Thanks LadyFree, I am not so much interested in this one nurse being she gave up her license but rather whether in general BON see offences like this as cause to revoke a license. It is really a question of what is considered acceptable behavior at a licensing level.

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Apr 4, 2016

Thanks LadyFree, I am not so much interested in this one nurse being she gave up her license but rather whether in general BON see offences like this as cause to revoke a license. It is really a question of what is considered acceptable behavior at a licensing level.

In many states it would be. It's patient confidentiality, exposing a vulnerable patient, there are ethics and moral turpitude clauses in most nurse practice acts. As the purpose of a BoN is not to protect nurses but to protect the public. You can call the BoN and can likely get answer

Maevish, ASN, RN · Apr 14, 2016

I think nearly every nurse has seen something that was picture/video worthy in their careers, but that doesn't mean we have done that! This story made me so embarrassed when I first heard it...I've seen some incredibly impressive "junk" tattoos, but never thought of taking a picture!

xo

Biker53 · Apr 14, 2016

Maevish, the vast majority of nurses would never take such a photo, and in this case it was co-workers who did the right thing and turned her in. Hopefully the administrators applauded their doing so. All nurses need to stand up to the rogue ones who violate patient privacy in whatever form it takes.