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Prepare a 2 page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media
use in health care.
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Introduction
Health care providers today must develop their skills in mitigating risks to their patients
and themselves related to patient information. At the same time, they need to be able
distinguish between effective and ineffective uses of social media in health care.
This assessment will require you to develop a staff update for an interprofessional team
to encourage team members to protect the privacy, confidentiality, and security of
patient information.
Professional Context
Health professionals today are increasingly accountable for the use of protected health
information (PHI). Various government and regulatory agencies promote and support
privacy and security through a variety of activities. Examples include:
● Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR).
● Provision of EHR incentive programs through Medicare and Medicaid.
● Enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) rules.
● Release of educational resources and tools to help providers and hospitals
address privacy, security, and confidentiality risks in their practices.
Technological advances, such as the use of social media platforms and applications for
patient progress tracking and communication, have provided more access to health
information and improved communication between care providers and patients.
At the same time, advances such as these have resulted in more risk for protecting PHI.
Nurses typically receive annual training on protecting patient information in their
everyday practice. This training usually emphasizes privacy, security, and confidentiality
best practices such as:
● Keeping passwords secure.
● Logging out of public computers.
● Sharing patient information only with those directly providing care or who
have been granted permission to receive this information.
Today, one of the major risks associated with privacy and confidentiality of patient
identity and data relates to social media. Many nurses and other health care providers
place themselves at risk when they use social media or other electronic communication
systems inappropriately. For example, a Texas nurse was recently terminated for
posting patient vaccination information on Facebook. In another case, a New York nurse
was terminated for posting an insensitive emergency department photo on her
Instagram account.
Preparation
As you begin to consider the assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete
the Breach of Protected Health Information (PHI) activity. The activity will support your
success with the assessment by creating the opportunity for you to test your knowledge
of potential privacy, security, and confidentiality violations of protected health
information. The activity is not graded and counts towards course engagement.
To successfully prepare to complete this assessment, complete the following:
● Review the settings presented in the Assessment 02 Supplement: Protected
Health Information [PDF]
● Download Assessment 02 Supplement: Protected Health Information [PDF]
● resource and select one to use as the focus for this assessment.
● Review the infographics on protecting PHI provided in the resources for this
assessment, or find other infographics to review. These infographics serve as
examples of how to succinctly summarize evidence-based information.
○ Analyze these infographics and distill them into five or six principles
of what makes them effective. As you design your interprofessional
staff update, apply these principles. Note: In a staff update, you will
not have all the images and graphics that an infographic might
contain. Instead, focus your analysis on what makes the
messaging effective.
● Select from any of the following options, or a combination of options, as the
focus of your interprofessional staff update:
○ Social media best practices.
○ What not to do: social media.
○ Social media risks to patient information.
○ Steps to take if a breach occurs.
● Conduct independent research on the topic you have selected in addition to
reviewing the suggested resources for this assessment. This information will
serve as the source(s) of the information contained in your interprofessional
staff update. Consult the BSN Program Library Research Guide for help in
identifying scholarly and/or authoritative sources.
Scenario
In this assessment, imagine you are a nurse in one of the health care settings described
in the following resource:
● Assessment 02 Supplement: Protected Health Information [PDF]
● Download Assessment 02 Supplement: Protected Health Information [PDF]
●
Before your shift begins, you scroll through Facebook and notice that a coworker has
posted a photo of herself and a patient on Facebook and described how happy she is
that her patient is making great progress. You have recently completed your annual
continuing education requirements at work and realize this is a breach of your
organization’s social media policy. Your organization requires employees to immediately
report such breaches to the privacy officer to ensure the post is removed immediately
and that the nurse responsible receives appropriate corrective action.
You follow appropriate organizational protocols and report the breach to the privacy
officer. The privacy officer takes swift action to remove the post. Due to the severity of
the breach, the organization terminates the nurse.
Based on this incident’s severity, your organization has established a task force with two
main goals:
● Educate staff on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
● Prevent confidentiality, security, and privacy breaches.
The task force has been charged with creating a series of interprofessional staff
updates on the following topics:
● Social media best practices.
● What not to do: Social media.
● Social media risks to patient information.
● Steps to take if a breach occurs.
Instructions
First, select one of the health care settings described in the following resource:
● Assessment 02 Supplement: Protected Health Information [PDF]
● Download Assessment 02 Supplement: Protected Health Information [PDF]
●
As a nurse in this setting, you are asked to create the content for a staff update
containing a maximum of two content pages that address one or more of these topics:
● Social media best practices.
● What not to do: social media.
● Social media risks to patient information.
● Steps to take if a breach occurs.
This assessment is not a traditional essay. It is a staff educational update about PHI.
Consider creating a flyer, pamphlet, or one PowerPoint slide (not an entire
presentation). Remember it should not be more than two pages (excluding a title and a
reference page).
The task force has asked team members assigned to the topics to include the following
content in their updates in addition to content on their selected topics:
● What is protected health information (PHI)?
○ Be sure to include essential HIPAA information.
● What are privacy, security, and confidentiality?
○ Define and provide examples of privacy, security, and
confidentiality concerns related to the use of technology in health
care.
○ Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to
safeguard sensitive electronic health information.
● What evidence relating to social media usage and PHI do interprofessional
team members need to be aware of? For example:
○ What are some examples of nurses being terminated for
inappropriate social media use in the United States?
○ What types of sanctions have health care organizations imposed
on interdisciplinary team members who have violated social media
policies?
○ What have been the financial penalties assessed against health
care organizations for inappropriate social media use?
○ What evidence-based strategies have health care organizations
employed to prevent or reduce confidentiality, privacy, and security
breaches, particularly related to social media usage?
Notes
● Your staff update is limited to two double-spaced content pages. Be selective
about the content you choose to include in your update so you can meet the
page length requirement. Include need-to-know information. Omit
nice-to-know information.
● Many times people do not read staff updates, do not read them carefully, or
do not read them to the end. Ensure your staff update piques staff members’
interest, highlights key points, and is easy to read. Avoid overcrowding the
update with too much content.
● Also, supply a separate reference page that includes two or three
peer-reviewed and one or two non-peer-reviewed resources (for a total of 3–5
resources) to support the staff update content.
Additional Requirements
● Written communication: Ensure the staff update is free from errors that
detract from the overall message.
● Submission length: Maximum of two double-spaced content pages.
● Font and font size: Use Times New Roman, 12-point.
● Citations and references: Provide a separate reference page that includes
2–3 current, peer-reviewed and 1–2 current, non-peer-reviewed in-text
citations and references (total of 3–5 resources) that support the staff
update’s content. Current means no older than 5 years.
● APA format: Be sure your citations and references adhere to APA format.
Consult the Evidence and APA page for an APA refresher.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in
the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
● Competency 1: Describe nurses’ and the interdisciplinary team’s role in
informatics with a focus on electronic health information and patient care
technology to support decision making.
○ Describe the security, privacy, and confidentially laws related to
protecting sensitive electronic health information that govern the
interdisciplinary team.
○ Explain the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to
safeguard sensitive electronic health information.
● Competency 2: Implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage
protected health information.
○ Identify evidence-based approaches to mitigate risks to patients
and health care staff related to sensitive electronic health
information.
○ Develop a professional, effective staff update that educates
interprofessional team members about protecting the security,
privacy, and confidentiality of patient data, particularly as it pertains
to social media usage.
● Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use
of health information and patient care technologies.
○ Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and
references.
○ Create a clear, concise, well-organized, and professional staff
update that is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation,
and spelling.
Use the resources linked below to help complete this assessment.
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Nursing Infographics on Protecting PHI
These infographics serve as examples of how to succinctly summarize information. In
your staff update assessment, you will not have all the images and graphics that
infographics might contain; instead, focus your analysis on what makes the messaging
effective. Apply these principles to writing your interprofessional staff update.
● Atlantic Training. (2012). HIPAA infographic: Protecting patient privacy, how
important is it?
HIPAA Infographic: Protecting Patient Privacy, How Important is it?
● HITC Staff. (2017). Infographic: The rise of medical data sharing and privacy
concerns.
https://hitconsultant.net/2017/08/11/infographic-medical-data-sharing/
● University of Illinois at Chicago. (n.d.). Protecting patient information in the
age of breaches.
https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/blog/protecting-patient-information/
The Nurse’s Role in Patient Privacy
● ANA Center for Ethics and Human Rights. (2015). American Nurses
Association position statement on privacy and confidentiality [PDF]. Available
from
https://www.nursingworld.org/~4ad4a8/globalassets/docs/ana/position-statem
ent-privacy-and-confidentiality.pdf
○ This ANA position statement examines the role of nurses in
protecting privacy and confidentiality and provides
recommendations to maintain compliance.
● McCartney, P. R. (2016). The electronic health record and nursing practice.
The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, 41(2), 126.
○ This article comments on the Joint Commission (TJC) alert on the
safe use of health information technology (HIT) following an
analysis of events that resulted in patient harm.
Social Media and Privacy
● Balestra, M. L. (2018). Social media missteps could put your nursing license
at risk. Alabama Nurse, 45(3), 18.
○ This article explores how social media can create legal problems
for nurses and reviews best practices for managing social media
missteps.
● Green, J. (2017). Nurses’ online behaviour: Lessons for the nursing
profession. Contemporary Nurse, 53(3), 355–367.
○ Green states that nurses need to carefully navigate the
complexities between the personal and the professional on social
media. The article includes a look at the legalities and etiquette of
the online environment.
● Heath, S. (2018). How does social media impact perceived provider
professionalism?
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/how-does-social-media-impact-percei
ved-provider-professionalism
○ This study shows that clinicians can maintain provider
professionalism by keeping their own personal social media posts
to a minimum.
● Healthcare Compliance Pros. (n.d.). Posting with caution: The do’s and don’ts
of social media and HIPAA compliance.
http://www.healthcarecompliancepros.com/blog/posting-with-caution-the-dosand-donts-of-social-media-and-hipaa-compliance-2/
○ This is a list of do’s and dont’s of social media and HIPAA
compliance.
● HIPAA Journal. (2018). HIPAA social media rules.
○ This article reviews the HIPAA laws and standards that apply to
social media use by health care organizations and their employees.
● National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. (2018). A nurse’s guide to
the use of social media [PDF].
https://www.ncsbn.org/NCSBN_SocialMedia.pdf
○ Inappropriate social media posts by nurses have resulted in
licensure and legal repercussions. This guide was developed by
NCSBN nurses and nursing students on how to use social media
responsibly.
● Ryan, G. (2016). International perspectives on social media guidance for
nurses: A content analysis. Nursing Management, 23(8), 28–35.
○ This report analyzes the content of national and international
professional guidelines on social media and consolidates good
practice examples for the nursing profession.
HIPAA
● Borten, K. (2016). The role of nurses in HIPAA compliance, healthcare
security.
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/the-role-of-nurses-in-hipaa-compliance-healt
hcare-security
○ Due to nurses’ focus on patient health and contact with patient
data, many may become desensitized to the importance of HIPAA
compliance.
● Garner, G. (2021). Understanding the 5 main HIPAA rules. HIPAA Exams.
https://www.hipaaexams.com/blog/understanding-5-main-hipaa-rules/
○ This is an in-depth look at five HIPAA laws and regulations to
ensure training and documentation protocols are error free and are
consistent with the current standards.
● Heath, S. (2017). Do health data security concerns influence patient data
sharing?
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/do-health-data-security-concerns-infl
uence-patient-data-sharing
○ Heath explains why patients need better assurances of PHI and
health data security before opting into a health information
exchange or other patient data-sharing model.
● Zabel, L. (2016). Ten common HIPAA violations and preventative measures
to keep your practice in compliance.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/10
-common-hipaa-violations-and-preventative-measures-to-keep-your-practice-i
n-compliance.html
○ HIPAA violations can result in fines of up to $1.5 million and may
include sanctions or loss of license. This article reviews the 10
most common violations.
Assessment 02 – Protected Health Information
For this assessment, you will prepare a two-page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and
appropriate social media use in health care. Before you complete the detailed instructions in the
courseroom, first select one of the settings below that will become the focus of your
interprofessional staff update.
After you have selected one of the two settings below, return to the courseroom to review the
assessment instructions and grading rubric prior to completing your assessment.
•
Outpatient Settings:
o Context: Outpatient settings, also known as ambulatory care settings, are
medical facilities where patients receive care without being admitted to the
hospital. This includes clinics, physician’s offices, and urgent care centers. Given
the high patient turnover and the diverse range of conditions treated, it’s crucial
for staff to maintain patient privacy. With the rise of telemedicine consultations,
there’s an increased risk of HIPAA violations, especially if conversations are
overheard or screens are visible to others.
o Social Media Concern: Sharing any patient information, photos, or even
seemingly harmless anecdotes from a day’s work can lead to unintentional
HIPAA violations.
•
Pediatrics (Newborns – age 16):
o Context: Pediatric settings cater to the medical needs of children from birth to
age 16. Given the vulnerable nature of this population, there’s a heightened need
for privacy and discretion. Parents and guardians are deeply involved in the care
process, and any breach of information can be particularly distressing.
o Social Media Concern: Sharing photos of cute moments, milestones, or
celebrations without consent can be a major breach. Even if names are not
mentioned, identifiable features or context can lead to violations.
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