Assignment Task:
Privacy breaches are serious offenses that can negatively impact the trust between healthcare workers and their clients or colleagues. To maintain trust, workers should remain focused on their patients and apply the three elements of care: professionalism, ethics, and therapeutic relationships (The College of Nurses of Ontario, 2016).
Case: A healthcare worker posted the following comment on her social media page:
"Can this shift be any longer? It started out with a waiting room full of whining women that don't seem to know what an 'emergency' actually means. Then I had to deal with the drama of transferring a 400 lb. old fat guy to the operating room-and those O.R. nurses are such divas, they were no help at all. If he does survive the surgery, maybe we can celebrate with a burger and fries-super-sized of course! If any of you are around Memorial Hospital and want to bring me a drink, I might need it to make it through the rest of my shift!"
Question 1: Did this worker break any laws with her post? If so, what?
Question 2: Is it safe to say whatever we want about patients or co-workers as long as we don't call them by name? Why or why not?
Question 3: If this worker's boyfriend's ex-wife was one of the 'whining women' waiting to be seen in the E.R. (but not directly under her care), would it be okay if she accessed her record just to see what she came in for? If not, what could the potential consequences of doing so be?