Introduction
Breaking patient confidentiality can get nurses (and all medical professionals) in big trouble. Not only is it unethical to be sharing a patient's personal information, it is also illegal. As we will discover through this WebQuest, not only can the agency you work for be sued for breaking a patient's confidentiality, but you (as the provider) can be personally sued.
As we look deeper into patient confidentiality (and specifically at the HIPAA law) consider the following scenarios and decide if an illegal or unethical act has taken place.
- A group of nurses goes out to lunch. As they are sitting in the restaurant, they are discussing a patient they were taking care of in the ICU (Bob). One of the nurses states that Bob isn't doing very well and he can't understand why the family won't "pull the plug".
- Mary (a nurse in the CCU) hears that her friends husband (Mike) is being admitted to the medical inpatient unit. Mary uses her access to patient records to see how Mike is doing so she knows to send flowers to his home or to the hospital.
- Jim (a nurse in the ED) sees a friend from his church(Tom)being treated for abdominal pain. During his lunch break, Jim posts on Facebook that Tom is feeling better and he has kidney stones.
- Joan works in the local pediatrician's office. One evening Joan's mother calls and says "I know Timmy's dad brought him in for a checkup. Did the doctor figure out what caused the rash on his back?" Timmy lives next door to Joan's mother.
Task
Your Assignment
As part of your assignment, you will need to watch videos, read articles, look at web pages, and search the Internet to find information about patient confidentiality and HIPAA. It is important to take your time while you read and watch so you don't miss important information.
After watching, reading, and searching, you will need to complete the Patient Confidentiality Worksheet and submit it as a Blackboard assignment by the given due date.
The three steps to this task are ...
- Conduct Research on privacy and HIPAA
- Complete the Patient Confidentiality Worksheet
- Submit the worksheet to your instructor through BlackBoard by the given due date
Details on how to complete each step and some helpful links are listed in the process page of this WebQuest
Process
The Process
There are three parts to completing the task: 1. Conduct Research on Privacy and HIPAA, 2. Complete the Patient Confidentiality Worksheet, 3. Submit the worksheet to your instructor through BlackBoard by the given due date.
Conduct Research on Privacy and HIPAA
Articles
- US Department of Health and Human Services: Health Information Privacy
- Nursing Made Incredibly Easy: Highlights of HIPAA for Nurses
- American Journal of Nursing: HIPAA: Not So Bad After All?
- NurseZone.com: Nurse Pleads Guilty to HIPAA Violation
After reading articles, go to Google Classroom, complete the worksheet and turn in
Evaluation
Evaluation
| Excellent (100%) | Adequate (50%) | Insufficient (0%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Knowlege |
Questions 1-3 are answered correctly. | Two questions from questions 1-3 are answered correctly. | One (or less) questions are answered correctly from questions 1-3. |
|
Application 1 |
Scenario 1 questions are answered in detail with supporting facts. | Scenario 1 questions are not answered in detail OR supporting facts are not provided. | Scenario 1 questions are not answered in detail AND supporting facts are not provided. |
| Application 2 (40 points) |
Scenario 2 questions are answered in detail with supporting facts. | Scenario 2 questions are not answered in detail OR supporting facts are not provided. | Scenario 2 questions are not answered in detail AND supporting facts are not provided.. |
| Writing (10 points) |
There are no grammar/spelling mistakes | There are 1-4 grammar/spelling mistakes | There are more than 4 grammar/spelling mistakes |
Conclusion
Conclusion
Through this WebQuest, you have learned more about HIPAA and patient confidentiality. All medical facilities will have privacy policies in place to comply with federal laws. Know these policies so you don't violate patient confidentially and end up in court (or worse). As medical providers, we need to remember that confidentiality is important, it is unethical and illegal to violate patient privacy. It is a good idea to bookmark the resources you used in this WebQuest. They will be valuable as you continue on your journey in the medical profession. Review them often!
End of WebQuest
Teacher Page
Teacher Page
Here you will find the lesson plan for the HIPAA and Confidentiality Web Quest. This page was written to provide teachers/instructors with an overview of the purpose, objectives, and learner description associated with this Web Quest.
Purpose
The HIPAA and Confidentiality Web Quest was designed to assist students in identifying the importance and consequences related to patient confidentiality issues in the medical field. By guiding students’ research, the students are also developing increased information literacy skills.
Rationale
Patient privacy is a topic that is not always covered in-depth in medical classes due to large amounts of content that is required to be covered and most students (and instructors) find it boring! However, with an increasing amount of medical providers being sued, fined, sent to jail, and/or loosing licenses over privacy violations, it is a critical subject for our students to know and understand.
Learner Description
This Web Quest was created to be used by nursing students to review the importance of patient confidentiality.
Prerequisites
This Web Quest assumes students will be familiar with web browsers, navigating the Internet, and word processing software.
Instructional Objectives
At the completion of this activity the student will be able to:
- Explain what the main privacy rules are in HIPAA.
- Identify the 3 main exceptions for the release of protected health information under HIPAA.
- Identify the penalties for an individual that violates HIPAA.
- Synthesize knowledge of HIPAA to find solutions to scenarios