Nursing student HIPAA VIOLATION! Help

[Reagan2010]

I'm currently a first semester nursing student and just started clinicals. Yesterday was my first actual day of clinical and we are learning the software at the hospital. On our software it is so confusing and so much to view at one time. We were trained on the general information on HIPAA laws and I was trying to be careful not to access someone's record I wasn't supposed to but wanted to see the different features specifically in searching a patient. I don't know why it seems so stupid now but I figured if I searched mine it was more safe than trying to access a certain patient in different ways and end up seeing someones information I wasn't supposed to. After playing around with the software on my record I realized this could possibly be against hospital policy. I logged off quickly and I feel so bad and I'm so scared I'll get kicked out. Should I go ahead and bring it to my institutions attention? I know that it's tracked but it really was an honest mistake and I feel horrible! I just thought it was the safest way since I already have my records and now I'm sick to my stomach. I'm so sad I've been thinking about it since yesterday

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Hello there! I am actually a fellow nursing student. This is, in fact, a HIPPA violation sadly. Even though it is you patient file, they are still the hospitals records and you should only access them through your patient accessibility. I know this seems silly, but it's just the law; however, I'm sure that if all you were doing was quickly glancing over it, then I'm sure everything is fine. I'm not sure how strict your program is, but mine would never know I logged in to see my information unless they went looking for it under suspicion, but reporting it to your instructor is a good idea. I wouldn't fret too much over this! :)

Please cite your source. The HHS administration (agency charged with the HIPAA information and information responsibility) indicates that your statement is wholly inaccurate. Your spelling of the HIPAA acronym was already corrected. Patients are given explicit rights to access, view, and correct their healthcare records. Accessing your own information is not a violation of the HIPAA privacy rule

[Ioreth, BSN, RN]

I was wondering about this since my clinical instructor brought it up during post conference this week. He said it was a HIPAA violation to look up your own record. It just didn't make sense to me with what little I know about HIPAA.

I think some people are overly concerned about possible HIPAA violations. A local cemetery refuses to give grave locations out of concern that doing so would be a HIPAA violation. This is even when the person asking for the headstone location provides the name and dates on the headstone and identifies themselves as a family member.

HIPAA is important and should be taken seriously, but we shouldn't live in fear of it. That said, I'm quite sure that accessing one's own records is a policy violation at most facilities. Breaking policy can get us fired as quickly as violating HIPAA. I'm glad you went to your instructors to talk about this before it could be discovered on their own. Nursing students are allowed a little (but only a tiny bit) more leeway in these things. Thank you for sharing this so that we can all learn from your experience.