Student nurse gets the boot...veteran nurse fired

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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.

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

Whether the post is real or not, the situation it presents is all too possible. It can, does and will continue to happen for the reasons I stated in my previous post in this thread.

I would normally agree that an offender should be spoken to first and given a chance to correct the situation themselves, but in this instance, no. If a kid shoplifts, make 'em return the item, pay for it and apologize. If a kid tries to kill someone, you call the cops. Every nursing student should know that HIPAA violations are tantamount to murder in healthcare. In my case, it was reviewed constantly in class and at every facility we had clinicals in. While I realize that every nursing class has its 'brown nosing kiss up', the OP's questioning the reporting of this incident points to a greater societal problem.....this idea of "I'm no rat!" This attitude is why cheating is rampant, why crime itself is rampant. I have a friend whose son was murdered years ago and no one has yet to be arrested. They knew who did it the same day, but the myriad of people telling them who did it wouldn't speak to the police because, "Oh, no! I'm no rat!" If students are willing to live with cheaters and serious rules violators among them, they become nurses who are willing to work with "impaired" drug using nurses and nurses who mistreat and steal from their patients. They also become citizens who are willing to live with criminals among them. After all, "I'm no rat!"

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

BLATANT, WILLFUL HIPAA violations are just like crimes against children; there are simply some things you don't do. These are not your typical college kids acting foolishly. In a few months they will literally have people's lives in their hands. If you can't (or won't) follow the rules on something as foundational as HIPAA, can I really trust you with someone's life? "Yes, yes, I know she violated HIPAA as a student, but that was six whole months ago. We spoke to her about it and trust me, she'll take good care of your mom and won't post anything on Facebook about it."

Yeah right.

Give the discipline and allow them to reapply later. As for the employee.....if she was a good employee,discipline but don't fire. If this was true, the employee probably already had dings against her.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I agree I think it's a hit and run but.......unfortunately this sort of thing happends and I would like to know why. Do you suddenly look down and think...Oh look! a gall bladder! What a great head shot that would make!!!!:yeah:

What in God's name would posses you do take a picture of yourself with a placenta????? :eek::eek: Then you are P.O.'d at the hospital, school and instructor because they said you wouldn't get in trouble????

What the heck????:grn::banghead::nuke:

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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

I just searched for an update on the above case. The student went to court for readmission to the program and she won. She's back in the nursing program, along with the others that were expelled. Interesting..

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I agree I think it's a hit and run but.......unfortunately this sort of thing happends and I would like to know why. Do you suddenly look down and think...Oh look! a gall bladder! What a great head shot that would make!!!!:yeah:

What in God's name would posses you do take a picture of yourself with a placenta????? :eek::eek: Then you are P.O.'d at the hospital, school and instructor because they said you wouldn't get in trouble????

What the heck????:grn::banghead::nuke:

Many of these kids live in a different world. Maybe the age-of-entry for nursing school should be raised to 21?!!??

Perhaps a little more maturity would help solve this.

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It could possibly be fake or not, but something like this did happen while I was in nursing school to a classmate I was close to. I think it was worse though, because it involved a picture being taken at a psychiatric facility WITH A PATIENT in the background! It was posted to FaceBook. No veteran nurse was fired, but she got kicked out of the program and the other student reprimanded.

It is so sad how people can be so disrespectful and insensitive. To this day that student (who got kicked out) doesn't believe she did anything wrong and blames the person who told on her.

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Pretty much everything I wanted to say has already been said.

Imagine you are a patient and you are just waking up out of major surgery and you have a nurse tell you. "Everything went well and all the diseased tissue was removed, however we thought it would make a hilarious photo op so we each held up your body tissues and took pics. It was such a riot!" Honestly how would that make you feel?

Also many people have to realize that Facebook photos don't always stay on FB. Many people will take them and then upload them to sites like Reddit or /b/ and they bleed out from there.

Plus just wait till the photoshopping starts.....

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Cardiac.
Imagine you are a patient and you are just waking up out of major surgery and you have a nurse tell you. "Everything went well and all the diseased tissue was removed, however we thought it would make a hilarious photo op so we each held up your body tissues and took pics. It was such a riot!" Honestly how would that make you feel?

I'd probably think that you were weird and scary for wanting to take pics with diseased organs, but I don't think I'd be upset as long as I wasn't identifiable. Now if you were selling the pics (e.g. an MD taking pics and selling to textbooks or using them in journals) and I wasn't cut in on the profits I'd be upset.

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

The fact that there are similar stories on the Internet does not convince me that the OP is fake. The fact is that there are similar stories because an awful lot of people are actually stupid enough to make the same mistake. Just google "nurse fired facebook" and you'll find a lot of similar stories, for example:

http://straightfromthea.com/2011/07/22/nurse-fired-after-posting-nasty-patient-photo-on-facebook-mugshot/

(BTW, the person who violated pt privacy in the story above is incorrectly id'ed in the headline as a nurse, the body of the story explains that she was a CNA, but the same principals certainly apply, i.e. she should have known better).

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This article shows the attitude of young people towards social media and why this will continue to be a problem in the future.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/10-things-you-dont-know-about-teens-and-social-networking-2527367/

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
It is so sad how people can be so disrespectful and insensitive.

I agree. And, what's more is that these occurrences are often never recorded except in the memories of those witnessing it. :crying2:

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

THIS:

The veteran nurse never should have allowed that picture to be taken .... :(

:up:

Veteran nurse?!?!!!!

What kind of veteran nurse allows someone to violate her patient in this manner? She failed to protect and advocate for her patient who was in an EXTREMELY vulnerable state, and she violated the sanctity of her patient's very being. What were all of the others in the OR doing while this was going on? They should ALL be disciplined!!!!

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