Nursing Student Question

Nurses HIPAA

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Hello all,

We have been discussing in class lately about HIPAA and how easy it can be to violate it without realizing.

So with that, my question is have any of you on here had a personal experience with a HIPAA violation without realizing it? Either yourself or a fellow coworker?

I'm not asking for specifics, I just kind of wanted an idea as to how thin that line really is.

Thank you for your time!

Specializes in ICU.

I can't even imagine why anyone would think it's ok to post anything from clinicals or work on FB. A big, fat NO people!! Why even tempt fate even if you think it is innocent. My clinical group and I took pics of us as a group on our first day together. Not one of us even thought nor did I have to say to anyone don't post that on FB because it's common sense and not one of us would do it. Maybe it has to do with that we are all a little older. I think the youngest is in her mid twenties. It just boggles my mind that people think it would be ok to post a pic of a placenta.

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It's gross and probably violates a school / facility rule against taking pictures of anything at clinical, but ... without identifying patient information, not a HIPAA violation. Just stupid, and yes, just because it's not a HIPAA violation doesn't meant they can't fire you for it.

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Specializes in Pedi.
I can't even imagine why anyone would think it's ok to post anything from clinicals or work on FB. A big, fat NO people!! Why even tempt fate even if you think it is innocent. My clinical group and I took pics of us as a group on our first day together. Not one of us even thought nor did I have to say to anyone don't post that on FB because it's common sense and not one of us would do it. Maybe it has to do with that we are all a little older. I think the youngest is in her mid twenties. It just boggles my mind that people think it would be ok to post a pic of a placenta.

Some people document absolutely everything they do on facebook. So I don't feel bad for them when they get fired or kicked out of school for their own stupidity.

I had a former colleague who used to post pictures from work on facebook all the time... to the point where she had a facebook album that was titled with our floor and the hospital... BAD idea. Most of the pictures were not anything bad- things like someone left a chocolate cake in the back room and one of the surgeons stuck a sign in it that said "Guaiac positive". That's funny. BUT, I do recall seeing a few at times that had the central monitor in the background and, if someone cared to zoom in/enlarge it, patients' names would have been visible.

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Specializes in Pedi.
A few years ago a Kansas City nursing student posted a picture of a patient's placenta on her Facebook page. No identifying information was in the picture but the nurse was almost ejected from the nursing program for violation of patient privacy and just plain poor judgement reflecting badly on the school.

Judge overturns nursing student's dismissal for Facebook photo of placenta | The Columbus Dispatch

Favorite part of this article:

The 22-year-old Byrnes had feared that her future career as a registered nurse and her potential earnings were threatened.

Bwahahahahaha if she thinks that this is no longer the case now that she won the right to return to school in court. All you have to do is google her name and you get 10 sites with a picture of her with the placenta. I think she's going to have quite a difficult time finding a job.

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