Patient Information Access Outside of the Facility?

Hello nurses! I'm currently a nursing student in the program at Purdue and I'm enrolled in nursing informatics this summer. I'm working on a project about where should nurses access information. My question to all of you is.....

Should nurses be able to access patient information/patient charting outside of the facility? What are your thoughts? Should we keep it the way it is now and only allow electronic charting in a facility only? How about accessing patient information on a smartphone?

Thank you so much for your responses!

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

What have discovered for yourself so far? Fill us in on that to get the conversation going. There is a lot to be discussed on this topic, much more than you may even realize, but you have to go first.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

What would be the purpose for a nurse to access charts outside of the facility and outside of work time? Once a nurse is off the clock, he/she has no responsibility for the patients cared for on the previous shift and therefore would be committing a HIPAA violation if looking at charts. Many charting systems have the option to document things such as med given by another nurse or free text documentation if needed, such as if a nurse on duty calls a nurse he/she relieved with a question.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I think it would depend on the role. Straight bedside nurses...no. Nurse managers and others who may need access to the EMR while not in the facility...yes.

[nursejoy1, ASN, RN]

Some nurse managers might need access outside of work. That being said, it would definitely need to be on a secure device. We are not even allowed to access our work emails on our smartphones unless IT has loaded security software on it.