Assignment task:
Protected Health Information (PHI): Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality Best Practices
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.
Instructions:
First, select one of the health care settings described in the following resource:
- Assessment - Protected Health Information.
As a nurse in this setting, you are asked to create the content for a staff update. This staff update will be delivered using your organization's internal communication platform and should be in the form of a social media post and should 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. Staff are frequently overwhelmed with required trainings and often click through without learning. To catch the attention of your audience be creative. Create a social media post that delivers the information required in an easy-to-read fashion like an infographic, or a short (under 3 minute) narrated presentation or video where you use your creativity to make the staff update fun and engaging.
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?
- Describe 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. Need Assignment Help?
- 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:
- Be selective about the content you choose to include. 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/view. 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.
Assessment - 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 course room, first select one of the settings below that will become the focus of your interprofessional staff updates.
After you have selected one of the two settings below, return to the course room to review the assessment instructions and grading rubric prior to completing your assessment.
- Community Health Care:
- Context: Community health care encompasses a wide range of services provided outside of a traditional hospital setting, often focusing on public health, education, and preventive care. This might include home visits, vaccination drives, and health education seminars. Given the community-based nature of the care, there's a close relationship between providers and patients.
- Social Media Concern: Sharing information about community events, patient interactions, or health outcomes can inadvertently disclose private patient details.
Hospital Setting:
- Context: Hospitals are complex environments with various departments catering to different medical needs. From emergency rooms to surgical units, patient information flows continuously. With numerous professionals involved in patient care, the risk of information leakage is high.
- Social Media Concern: Discussing challenging cases, sharing experiences, or even posting about daily routines can inadvertently reveal patient information, especially if specifics are mentioned.