Student nurse gets the boot...veteran nurse fired

[C287]

The worst thing happened to our nursing class today and I just really need to talk to someone other than my fellow students and my family. A couple of students were in the OR observing during clinicals this week and asked a nurse to snap a photo of them holding some recently removed body tissues--in the background of the photo you could see the patient's stomach a little. She posted the photo to her facebook page under all the rest of her nursing school pictures. Someone emailed the photo to our program director. The student who posted it to her facebook has been kicked out, the other one in the photo reprimanded, and the nurse who took the photo has been fired from the hospital. I'm not sure what to be most upset about...the thought that perhaps another student who was a FB friend of this student's emailed this photo with the intent of getting that student kicked out of the program (we are not allowed to have our cell phones) or the fact that the nurse who took the photo was fired (when I worked with her I believe she has been a nurse for 20 some odd years) or the fact that the rest of us have to go back there on monday morning and deal with the consequences and worry about having to lose the nursing school's contract with the hospital--if not for us, for future students! man this all a mess:crying2: sorry about the sloppy writing--I'm distressed.

[elprup, BSN, RN]

School should've covered that this is NOTacceptable the first day of clinicals and in ethics class and ever other class. This was drilled into our heads everywhere. Bad decision all around.

[Amanda.RN]

This was completely inappropriate. Think if it was you on the table!! As a nurse, I am appalled and embarrassed. As a patient, I am horrified and disgusted. (Remember, we're all patients somewhere - even if we're healthy, we at least have a PCP.)

The person who reported it did the right thing. I can't believe a nurse with that many years of experience would be willing to take the photo in the first place! Awful.

[CareteamRN70]

I'll up the ante on the OP's tale. I have a friend who just started at a LTC as an RN. She was a very friendly outgoing nurse who befriended her fellow nurses and all of her CNA's.

She shared her facebook page with them as well as her email address.

Few weeks later she calls me very upset because she was fired...

One her "friends" walked into a patients room where a very very large code brown was sitting on the floor.

She snapped a photo of it with her cell phone and promptly emailed it to several others, my friend included.

One of the recipients, another nurse, took the image to the DON of the facility who called in the offending aide and asked who all she had sent the photo to...

All the recipients, my friend included, were fired. The original aide was fired for abuse of patient dignity..even tho no pt could be identified in the picture. The others were fired for not coming forward to the DON when they had received the image.

I felt bad for my friend (we went to NS together) but it just went to prove how correct someof our instructors were about living in this day and age of cell phone cameras, facebook, email etc. It can all be turned against you over the littlest thing. I have a FB page but if you were privy enough to see it you couldn't even tell I was a nurse or were I work. I don't post about work on it, I don't mention work, and I refuse to own a cell phone even tho my facility has offered to get me one so they can hit me up for OT easier.

The only place I even let my guard down slightly, is well...here on AN...and even then when I post I imagine my DON or Facility manager is reading every post I make...

[roser13, ASN, RN]

"......I'm not sure what to be most upset about..."

OP, here's what you should be most upset about:

Your school did not provide so much as a basic education in patient rights, HIPAA, and appropriate conduct in a clinical setting before any of you even set foot in the OR. Of course all involved showed a serious lack of personal judgment, but the students should have been coming from a place of a thorough indoctrination into how to behave as a medical professional. You and your fellow students have not been receiving a proper education.

I do hope that there are ramifications for your institution. They deserve to have a serious wake-up call that will force them to bring their program up to speed.

[Ivanna_Nurse, BSN, RN]

All I can say is wow. And the fact that you are upset about a FB friend "out to get" the offender who posted the pic is interesting. I hope that you dont believe that this is acceptable behavior or practice for a minute. I am glad that someone advocated for the patient and told the dean. What a disgrace. ~Ivanna

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

For some reason, this post seems fake. How is it that students who are "observing" suddenly have access to "removed body tissue" and then have a "veteran" nurse gladly snap a photo of it all? :icon_roll

Maybe someone's doing an assignment for an ethics class and wants some honest reactions to a hypothetical scenario?

Fake or not, it's still a good example of what has recently happened re: nursing students/nurses posting photos or other work-related info on FB.

I'm also doubting this happened "yesterday." Sounds a lot like the situation described below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343628/4-nursing-students-expelled-posting-Facebook-human-placenta-pictures.html

[rita359]

Reading original post and replies should be a good lesson for everyone. Social media is still relatively new and we are all learning the rules. These people were in a professional setting not a social setting though some seem to confuse the two. Lesson learned. Original poster, go to school Monday with your head held high knowing you have learned a very valuable lesson. We all learn more from mistakes than when everything goes right. Thank God it wasn't your mistake for it seems "there but for the grace of God goes I" might otherwise have been appropriate.

[ctersi01]

Well, I will be in the minority here. The person who reported the whole thing should have told the student to remove the pic immediately and then, when back at clinical, tell the veteran nurse what had happened (maybe that nurse didn't know the pic would end up on FB)? At any rate, although it was a STUPID mistake from the word "go", I personally, would have handled it differently. We all need to be professionals, and sometimes we need to be reminded of that. It's a shame that now a student can't finish school (and will have that on their record), a veteran nurse was fired (also on their record) all because of a stupid error in judgment. The only time I ever report any of my coworkers, would be if patient safety was compromised or drugs/alcohol were involved. Luckily, I have never had to do that. Again, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but that is how I would handle it. I work with too many nurses who spend more time in our manager's office throwing their coworkers under the bus, than they do working.

[Ddestiny, BSN, RN]

I'm also doubting this happened "yesterday." Sounds a lot like the situation described below:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343628/4-nursing-students-expelled-posting-Facebook-human-placenta-pictures.html

That's the situation I was describing in my previous reply. I had never seen an actual news story of it, just heard through word of mouth by our instructors. "Don't do _____, here's an example of what happened". I didn't realize it involved so many people, but I had thought it was around Olathe, KS so I'm sure it's the same situation. Sad...

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

If someone is that insensitive, they reap what they sow. I'm assuming the parties involved are adults? No excuse.

[diva rn, BSN, RN]

I absolutely believe this was fake....if you read the story Horseshoe posted the link to-it's so similar that I find it hard to believe it's a coincidence....

I also find it hard to believe...and maybe I am naive, that a "veteran" RN would not know that taking a picture of ANYTHING in an OR was against HIPAA regulations and therefore a very serious offense.

So, I think we've been had......

(someone's school assignment)

[ballas]

That is disturbing maybe a reprimand yes but not that vawncast severe. A warning before actually booting the person out would have been preferred.