PATIENT posting pictures on Facebook

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Specializes in Rural Health.

We had an ED patient over the weekend that posted pictures on facebook from his visit. 2 of the ED nurses were in the picture and had no idea that they'd even been photographed. They were very upset to find out that it ended up on fb. One of them does not have a fb account.

There wasn't really anything they could've done to stop it from happening, our risk manager is looking into this right now. I'm not sure exactly how the nurses saw the pictures because it was the risk managers understanding that the patient was from out of town and the nurses did not know him, so would not have been his friend on fb. I thought she could just report the photo but not sure, I will have to talk to the nurse that found it to find out the exact details since the risk manager doesn't have a good understanding of how facebook works.

I've seen a few times that one of the OB nurses will end up on facebook and that's never surprised me, patients and families are always taking tons of pictures in that area. It's never seemed to be an issue before.

Does anyone have any policies regarding this?

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

Actually, my hospital has a policy that while patient's can take whatever pics of their body they want while in the hospital, they can not take any pics with staff members in it. If a patient does take a pic with a staff member we can get the higher up's involved to ensure the pic gets deleted. So if this incident was at my hospital this guy would be getting a call from Risk Management to take the pic down ASAP

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Specializes in Rural Health.

Thanks for your reply, is there anyway I could see your policy?

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.
\ said:
Is there anyway I could see your policy?

Hmmm. I am not at work and it would only be available on our Intranet. If I think of it I can copy/paste it next time I work

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Specializes in Rural Health.

awesome, thanks so much! Do you have signs warning patients that they can not post pictures of staff or how are they made aware of the policy?

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.
\ said:
Do you have signs warning patients that they can not post pictures of staff or how are they made aware of the policy?

No, the are only made aware of the policy when they break it. Not a perfect system by any means

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Specializes in ICU.

The patient was from out of town? How did you find out?? :down:

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Specializes in Rural Health.
The patient was from out of town? How did you find out?? :down:

This is what I need to talk to the actual nurse about b/c I'm not sure how she found out. I think he was out of town and possibly one of his friends is from town and posted the pictures but I haven't had a chance to ask her about it yet.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Facilities can have policies against taking pictures of staff, but they can only be enforced by removing the person taking pictures from the hospital. It's not illegal to take pictures of staff and there's no legal route for getting such pictures deleted from facebook.

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Isn't it remarkable how many privacy laws are in place to protect patients but ZIP to protect staff?

If someone wants to use your photo in a magazine or newspaper, they must get your permission. But online postings? Well, slap as many candids on there as they can and you can't do a thing about it, legally?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Privacy laws protect you in any situation where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, this doesn't include when you're at work as a Nurse, unless you're going to the bathroom. As a general rule, photos of you cannot be taken anywhere where you should feel comfortable getting naked; bathrooms, dressing rooms, your own home, or as a patient in hospital bed, but not the Nurse in the same room; it's situational, not location specific.

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MunoRN said:
Privacy laws protect you in any situation where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, this doesn't include when you're at work as a Nurse, unless you're going to the bathroom. As a general rule, photos of you cannot be taken anywhere where you should feel comfortable getting naked; bathrooms, dressing rooms, your own home, or as a patient in hospital bed, but not the Nurse in the same room; it's situational, not location specific.

Thing that gets me about this is while I'm at work, I'm live and in person. I have not been photo-shopped; my head has not been transplanted onto a naked body. Ever seen some of the creative images placed online?

I still say that if a magazine cannot use my photo without my consent, facebook sure shouldn't be allowed to either.

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