Anonymous6578

It will not affect me in any way other than if I make one more mistake throughout the program, I will probably be kicked out. It will not be something that is visible by future employers or anything like that. The cost of paying back the school for the trip was one of my main reasons for appealing this. Aside from the fact that I think this was an inappropriate punishment and the situation was handled extremely poorly, which is my other reason. I'm considering just dropping the matter, but I'm also stubborn and don't like feeling as though I've been wronged.

Alright, another update. I just spoke to the dean on the phone and she said after speaking with the school's lawyers they have decided that there was a HIPAA violation and my probation is being upheld. No explanation. I'm actually pretty angry and have contacted the school's lawyer to see if she is willing to meet with me to explain how they came to that determination. I feel that I am entitled to that, at least. I provided evidence that showed that this was not a breach, and I think they need to give me an explanation that invalidates my evidence. I have a feeling the lawyer will not agree to meet with me and I'll have to consult a law firm that deals specifically with nursing issues. Of course I have no money to pay for it and I'll have to determine if it's even worth it in the end. If the cost of a lawyer is greater than what I would have to repay for the cancelled trip to the nursing conference, I don't know if it would make sense to pursue it. I just feel that this is wrong and I want to fight it on principle. Ugh.

Just to clarify, even though I don't think it changes much, the student only reached out to contact my friend. I do not believe he knew that the rest of us knew, at that point.

U Hi there! Thanks for your input but you have a couple points of the story incorrect. The student was never placed on a hold. They went to the ER, were evaluated, and released. Therefore no one would have ever noticed a person was missing. Also, all my friend initially said was that the person was escorted to the ER by her instructor. Later, after the student was released, he called her to let her know what happened, and she let the rest of us know that it turned out to be nothing. I probably didn't clarify this until later in the thread but I thought you might be interested in the rest of the details in case it sways your opinion. Either way, I appreciate your perspective.

Another update. I met with a different dean today to discuss my appeal. She says that as of right now, the probation stands, but they are waiting for more information. Apparently they have consulted one of the local hospital systems where we do some of our clinicals, and they agree that it was a violation. She also told me that the college's lawyers are looking at the case as well to help determine an appropriate outcome. I tried to stress to her that there were four individuals involved, and each of our roles should be assessed separately. I've told this forum exactly what my role was in this situation and I still don't see how they can so easily say it was a violation. It's very frustrating. Anyway, she said I will likely have an answer sometime next week. Thanks again for your support and advice.

This is the same stipulation we have. Our instructor has to be with us when administering meds, injections, inserting catheters, basically anything besides basic care.

Our school has never mentioned anything to us about malpractice insurance so it's interesting that you mention that. I'll have to ask my instructor at clinicals tomorrow how that works. With regard to the rest of your post, you bring up many good points and have given me a lot to think about. I can assure you that this has been a huge learning experience for me and I put a lot more thought and consideration into any conversations that I have regarding other people's health. Thank you for your advice.

Hi there! I understand exactly what you're saying and I agree with you. My issue with the situation is that my friend initially communicated with me only regarding her concern for this student and things that he had told her and several others. The information that he was having suicidal ideations did not come from a confidential nurse/client relationship. After that, when the clinical instructor escorted this student to the ER, my friend only knew he had been escorted there, not whether or not he had been admitted. She only found out about the outcome of the visit when the student called her after being released from the ER to let her know that he was doing okay. That is when she followed up with us to let us know that he was released and seemed to be fine I can see why this is a tricky situation. I just feel that because all of the information that was shared came from a friend/friend relationship, it does not qualify as protected health information. If the appeal doesn't go my way I will definitely be consulting with a group of lawyers that I've found that deals almost exclusively with nursing related law. There is no way I would try to bring legal action unless I felt 100% confident that I was not in the wrong. Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. :)

The ER that the student was brought to was in the hospital that they were doing their clinicals. I do know how the story got back to administration, but it is so confusing and convoluted that it would be hard to explain. I also know that the "victim" has no hard feelings about the situation and has made it very clear that he feels it was all a big misunderstanding. He has continued to come to my friend for support and it doesn't seem that this situation has affected his trust in her at all.

Sorry I didn't update sooner. For some reason I stopped getting message notifications on this thread. Anyway, I haven't heard anything since submitting my appeal last week. One of the other parties involved also submitted an appeal but she did it on Thursday. They called her to let her know that they have come to a decision but she won't find out until their scheduled meeting on Tuesday. I think they are trying to get us on the fact that the "victim" was initially expressing his feelings during clinicals. While we are at the clinical sites, we are considered covered entities. So even though he was sharing his feelings as a friend, not a patient, they are trying to twist that into confidential information. That's the only thing I can think of. During the disciplinary meeting she pretty much said that we cannot talk about anyone else's health conditions, doesn't matter who they are. The administrators told us that if there was ever a HIPAA violation it could result in the school being banned from the clinical site which, obviously, would cause major problems for the school. Therefore, I have a feeling that instead of trying to teach us exactly what does/doesn't constitute a violation, they are just trying to make us so scared to violate it that we don't talk about anything. Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

It's actually a very well respected school in our area. I have a feeling that the disciplinary documents were typed up by a secretary, not one of the faculty in question. Clearly, she's not very familiar with the terminology.

I decided against printing out the thread for the reasons you described. Hopefully I will hear something by the end of this week.

Hi everyone! Thank you again for the support. I did speak to a lawyer on Monday and while she does not specialize in this type of case, she did offer to look into it for me. Luckily, one of the other students involved in this debacle spoke to someone else at our school and was informed that tomorrow was the last day that we would be able to appeal the decision. She was also informed that our dean did not follow the proper procedure when disciplining us. She was supposed to meet with us individually to let us tell our side of the story before a decision was made. When we went into the meeting, she already had the papers drawn up and ready to be signed. She also failed to tell us that we only had 5 days to appeal. I don't know what the dean's motivation was behind all of this, but I believe that she knows that what we did was not really a violation, and is just trying to make an example out of us for some reason. Maybe they are concerned that if they don't nip this "talk" in the bud, then a real violation will occur in the future, I don't know. I do plan on printing out this thread to use in my argument tomorrow. Even if this did turn out to be a real violation, how are four new nursing students supposed to know it is a violation when 20+ seasoned nurses don't see it as one? And the icing on the cake is, throughout the disciplinary paperwork HIPAA is spelled wrong! Two Ps instead of two As. A common mistake but come on. Again, thank you for your support and I'll let you know how my appeal goes tomorrow.

Thank you so much to everyone that has taken the time to comment. I will update after I speak to the lawyers on Monday. And I would just like to say that while yes, we were talking about the situation, the only sentiments that were expressed were how bad we felt for whoever the person was and that if they didn't have a support system, we would have been happy to include them in our study group. Of course, if they were to be brought in, we would finally know who the student was, but that wasn't the point. I know it doesn't change anything but I just want it known that I really had only the best intentions.

I am actually dually enrolled. The academic probation situation is at the community college level but the legal counsel is through my university, so hopefully this won't cause a conflict of interest.