This is an original excerpt written by our team to show structure, depth and referencing. It is modelled on the course named above but is not a university document. Use samples as a study guide and follow your school's academic integrity policy.
Initial post
This week's scenario describes a nursing student who posts a photo of herself in scrubs after a clinical shift with the caption "Crazy night with a patient who coded twice! #nursingstudent." No name or face appears, but the hospital's name is on her badge and the post went up an hour after the event.
I think this post is a privacy violation, even though the patient isn't named. The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects individually identifiable health information, which includes any information that could reasonably be used to identify a patient, not only names (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). The combination of the hospital, the timing and the event could let the patient's family, coworkers or neighbors recognize who it was.
The National Council of State Boards of Nursing's guide to social media (NCSBN, 2018) sets out principles that apply directly here. Nurses must not share, post or otherwise disseminate any information or images about a patient gained through the nurse–patient relationship, and they must not refer to patients in a disparaging way, even if the patient is not identified. The guide also warns that posts can be shared beyond the intended audience and that deleting a post doesn't remove it. Boards of nursing can discipline nurses for these breaches, and students can be dismissed from their programs.
Ethically, the post also breaks trust. Patients share their most vulnerable moments with us because they expect confidentiality. A post that turns a patient's emergency into a story for followers treats them as content rather than as a person.
What the student could do instead: reflect on the shift privately, talk it through with her clinical instructor or in a debriefing, and keep social media posts to general reflections on learning, without patients, places or times.
Reply to a classmate
Sam, you made a good point that the student probably didn't mean any harm and was processing a stressful night. I agree that intent matters for how a school responds, and a first-time student mistake might call for education rather than dismissal. But I'd argue that good intent doesn't change whether the post was a breach, because harm to the patient's privacy happens regardless. It also shows why schools should teach social media rules before the first clinical rotation. Your idea of a debriefing after high-stress shifts would give students a safe place to process events like this one, which takes away much of the reason to post.
References
National Council of State Boards of Nursing. (2018). A nurse's guide to the use of social media. https://www.ncsbn.org/public-files/NCSBN_SocialMedia.pdf
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Summary of the HIPAA privacy rule. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html
