Petty and not proud of it

I posted about this before, but there is an update.... a student requested to see me after school when she was not feeling well and I was in a meeting (I do not see students after school hours), and the front desk ladies just had her sit and wait for me to get out of my meeting to assess her, rather than simply call her parents for pickup (did not need any permission to leave, was after school on her own accord). Student did have fever of 101 (I did assess her, and spoke with mom).

Anyway, yesterday the front desk lady sent an email to the ENTIRE SCHOOL saying that the student has pna and will be out for a few days. She has never done this before. We don't have a written protocol, but what has been done in the past is the front desk will inform me and I will inform the necessary teachers, but certainly not the ENTIRE staff. I feel this is like an "I told you so" to me, although it's misdirected because I never disputed that the girl was sick, just that they should have acted instead of letting her sit in misery for an hour for no reason. Here is the petty and not proud part: I seriously want to go to HR and make a report about privacy violation. An email to the entire school is so inappropriate. But I feel this will only make things worse.

48 minutes ago, jnemartin said:

I posted about this before, but there is an update.... a student requested to see me after school when she was not feeling well and I was in a meeting (I do not see students after school hours), and the front desk ladies just had her sit and wait for me to get out of my meeting to assess her, rather than simply call her parents for pickup (did not need any permission to leave, was after school on her own accord). Student did have fever of 101 (I did assess her, and spoke with mom).

Anyway, yesterday the front desk lady sent an email to the ENTIRE SCHOOL saying that the student has pna and will be out for a few days. She has never done this before. We don't have a written protocol, but what has been done in the past is the front desk will inform me and I will inform the necessary teachers, but certainly not the ENTIRE staff. I feel this is like an "I told you so" to me, although it's misdirected because I never disputed that the girl was sick, just that they should have acted instead of letting her sit in misery for an hour for no reason. Here is the petty and not proud part: I seriously want to go to HR and make a report about privacy violation. An email to the entire school is so inappropriate. But I feel this will only make things worse.

Wow. That went well beyond need to know. So...if it was me, I'd start with the principal and discuss the intersection of HIPAA and FERPA, and the potential liability for the school regarding such a careless release of personal health info...

as an aside, it may not be directed at you but YEEPS that's got to be squashed right now.

What is pna?

16 minutes ago, ruby_jane said:

Wow. That went well beyond need to know. So...if it was me, I'd start with the principal and discuss the intersection of HIPAA and FERPA, and the potential liability for the school regarding such a careless release of personal health info...

as an aside, it may not be directed at you but YEEPS that's got to be squashed right now.

This is only my second year as a SN, so I'm not totally clear on FERPA and HIPAA, as it applies to non-medical staff (I generally handle these emails to staff and use the typical strict HIPAA guidelines of sharing only need to know info with need to know people). I was actually researching it this morning to get some clarification, but I'm not sure if she violated HIPAA/FERPA by sharing the dx.

PNA is abbreviation for pneumonia.

13 minutes ago, jnemartin said:

This is only my second year as a SN, so I'm not totally clear on FERPA and HIPAA, as it applies to non-medical staff (I generally handle these emails to staff and use the typical strict HIPAA guidelines of sharing only need to know info with need to know people). I was actually researching it this morning to get some clarification, but I'm not sure if she violated HIPAA/FERPA by sharing the dx.

PNA is abbreviation for pneumonia.

Medical information should only be shared on a need-to-know basis. I share allergies/asthma/epilepsy/diabetes with all staff (we have a form from parents permitting this also) to keep the children safe. I certainly don't share diagnoses. She violated FERPA.

Helpful link: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/doc/ferpa-hipaa-guidance.pdf

6 minutes ago, BiscuitRN said:

Medical information should only be shared on a need-to-know basis. I share allergies/asthma/epilepsy/diabetes with all staff (we have a form from parents permitting this also) to keep the children safe. I certainly don't share diagnoses. She violated FERPA.

I do the same in terms of allergies/asthma/epilepsy/diabetes, and in this case I would not have shared the diagnosis. It is not necessary. And certainly not to the entire school, that is just crazy.

6 minutes ago, BiscuitRN said:

Helpful link: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/doc/ferpa-hipaa-guidance.pdf

I was perusing this doc this morning. It's a bit dense, but I'm making my way through.

1 hour ago, jnemartin said:

This is only my second year as a SN, so I'm not totally clear on FERPA and HIPAA, as it applies to non-medical staff (I generally handle these emails to staff and use the typical strict HIPAA guidelines of sharing only need to know info with need to know people). I was actually researching it this morning to get some clarification, but I'm not sure if she violated HIPAA/FERPA by sharing the dx.

PNA is abbreviation for pneumonia.

She sure as poop did violate the student's right to privacy. Anyone can violate privacy. ? FERPA sort of dictates need to know so she violated that as well.

TY for the PNA dx. This inquiring mind wanted to know also. ?

21 hours ago, jnemartin said:

I posted about this before, but there is an update.... a student requested to see me after school when she was not feeling well and I was in a meeting (I do not see students after school hours), and the front desk ladies just had her sit and wait for me to get out of my meeting to assess her, rather than simply call her parents for pickup (did not need any permission to leave, was after school on her own accord). Student did have fever of 101 (I did assess her, and spoke with mom).

Anyway, yesterday the front desk lady sent an email to the ENTIRE SCHOOL saying that the student has pna and will be out for a few days. She has never done this before. We don't have a written protocol, but what has been done in the past is the front desk will inform me and I will inform the necessary teachers, but certainly not the ENTIRE staff. I feel this is like an "I told you so" to me, although it's misdirected because I never disputed that the girl was sick, just that they should have acted instead of letting her sit in misery for an hour for no reason. Here is the petty and not proud part: I seriously want to go to HR and make a report about privacy violation. An email to the entire school is so inappropriate. But I feel this will only make things worse.

Oh I would sooooooo do it. That's completely unacceptable.

21 hours ago, cid1 said:

What is pna?

Pneumonia

I realize you posted this yesterday so I'm a little late to the game....but yesterday I had a student come to me, referred by the teacher, for "possible allergic reaction to ant bites," which the student got *wait for it* 4 days ago!!!!

Multiple ant bites on her leg with typical localized reaction symptoms to...idk...a stimulus foreign to the body?! No generalized swelling, pus, oozing, rash, inflammation, erythema, itching, etc. Just typical ant bites.

I wanted to write a note back to the teacher that said "show me your credentials please? What makes you qualified to tell a student she's having an allergic reaction??" But I simply wrote, "no reaction symptoms" with a great big smiley face ?