Maintaining Confidentiality and Privacy of Patients on Social Media Platforms

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1NURSING
1. An RN you work with shares with you that a peer graduate RN has posted on
Instagram comments relating to a difficult patient being cared for on the unit you
both work. She knows you are friends with this person and asks you to discuss their
professional responsibility with them. Share the ethical principles that are present in
this situation and how you would professionally address these with your peer
graduate RN?
The term Confidentiality in healthcare, when it comes to the healthcare service users, can be
defined as the right of an individual for having personal identifiable medical information kept
private. Confidential information of the patients should only be available to the physician of
record as well as other health care and insurance personnel if necessary. Nurses, being a crucial
part of the healthcare service are stipulated to develop as well as maintain a series of
responsibilities amongst which maintaining the confidentiality of the patients is one of the most
crucial responsibility (Spector & Kappel, 2012). Considering the fact that the patient health data
is one of the most easily available yet sensitive information available to the nurses, it is the
responsibility of the nurses to not only resist sharing information about any patients on social
media platforms but also to protect the data from leaking to external sources. Violation of the
mentioned rule not only results in large amount of fine but also may result in suspension or even
termination. In the following paragraph, review of relevant literatures associated with the usage
of social media by nurses and violation of privacy of the patients by the same has been discussed.
According to Ventola (2014), while a good number of social media tools are available for the
healthcare professionals for enhancing their professional networking as well as education,
organizational promotion, patient care, patient education as well as public health programs,
usage of social media by nurses comes with the risk of breaches of the confidentiality and

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privacy of the patient, violation of persona-professional boundaries as well as distribution of
wrong or poor quality information. According to the researchers, implementing strict polices and
guidelines by the management of the heath care hoes can be considered as one of the most
effective strategies to deal with unethical as well as improper usage of social media. According
to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule, it is the
responsibility of the nurses to safe keep as well as protects the information which the patients
share with them. For complying with the HIPAA Privacy rule, the clinical vignettes that have
been posted on the social media platform concerning the heath care service users must remove
all kinds of personal identifying information as well as any kind of revealing references (Schmitt,
Sims-Giddens & Booth, 2012). This can be done by conducting de-identification that includes
changing or omitting key details of the heath care service users, avoiding the description of the
rare medical issue and avoiding mention specific time frames as well as location without the
concept of the patient. However, both the papers are found to be lacking adequate strategies that
are needed to deal with the mentioned problem.
However, it has been found that in spite of the precautions taken by the management of
healthcare homes, a good number of inadvertent breaches have been found involving social
media platforms. A study of medical blogs written by HCPs found that individual patients were
described in 42% of the 271 samples studied. Amongst the mentioned samples, 17 percent were
found to incorporate enough information that are sufficient for the patients to identify
themselves. According to Ventola (2014), one of the major strategies includes addressing the risk
associated with the usage of social media in the employee policies. The management of
healthcare organizations should incorporate polices against leaking of confidential data of the
patents and strict disciplinary actions should be taken against the same. The establishment of