prepare a 2 page interprofessional staff update on HIPAA and appropriate social media use in health care.
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.
o 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:
o Social media best practices.
o What not to do: social media.
o Social media risks to patient information.
o 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]
Assessment 01 – Nursing Informatics in Health Care
For this assessment, you will write a 4–5 page evidence-based proposal to support the need for a nurse informaticist in an organization who would focus on improving health care outcomes.
Before you complete the detailed instructions in the courseroom, first review the focus of the new nurse informaticist position you will propose by examining the description below. You will write your evidence-based proposal to support the need for a new nurse informaticist who would focus on enhancing patient education through digital platforms.
- Enhancing Patient Education through Digital Platforms:
o Background: Patient education is crucial for improving adherence to treatment
plans and promoting self-management of chronic conditions.
o Benefits: Digital platforms, such as patient portals and mobile apps, can provide
patients with easy access to accurate and reliable educational materials, leading
to better understanding and management of their health. This meets many
patients where they are and provides opportunities to provide personalized
education tailored to a patient's specific conditions and needs. Such tools often
take the forms of interactive multimedia that can also improve patient
understanding.
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.
PROPOSAL FORMAT
The chief nursing officer (CNO) and human resources (HR) manager have asked you to include the headings below in your proposal and to be sure to address the bullets following each heading. Remember that you will emphasize the focus of the new nurse informaticist position as described in the Assessment 01 Supplement: Nursing Informatics in Health Care [PDF] Download Assessment 01 Supplement: Nursing Informatics in Health Care [PDF]resource.
Nursing Informatics and the Nurse Informaticist
• What is nursing informatics?
• What is the role of the nurse informaticist?
Nurse Informaticists and Other Health Care Organizations
• What is the experience of other health care organizations with nurse informaticists?
• How do these nurse informaticists interact with the rest of the nursing staff and the interdisciplinary team?
Impact of Full Nurse Engagement in Health Care Technology
• How does fully engaging nurses in health care technology impact:
o Patient care?
o Protected health information (security, privacy, and confidentiality)?
In this section, you will explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse informaticist and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively manage patients' protected health information, particularly privacy, security, and confidentiality. Evidence-based means that they are supported by evidence from scholarly sources.
o Workflow?
o Costs and return on investment?
Opportunities and Challenges
• What are the opportunities and challenges for nurses and the interdisciplinary team with the addition of a nurse informaticist role?
o How can the interdisciplinary team collaborate to improve quality care outcomes through technology?
Summary of Recommendations
• What are 3–4 key takeaways from your proposal about the recommended nurse informaticist role that you want the CNO and the HR manager to remember?
o This is the section where the justification for the implementation of the nursing informaticist role is addressed. Remember to include evidence from the literature to support your recommendation.
ADDIOTAL REQUIREMENTS
• Written communication: Ensure written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• Submission length: 4–5 double-spaced pages, in addition to title and references pages.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 point.
• Citations and References: Cite a minimum of three current scholarly and/or authoritative sources to support your ideas. In addition, cite a minimum of one current professional blog or website to support your central ideas. Current means no more than five years old.
• APA formatting: Be sure to follow APA formatting and style guidelines for citations and references. For an APA refresher, consult the Evidence and APA page on Campus.
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.
o Define nursing informatics and the role of the nurse informaticist.
o Explain how the nurse collaborates with the interdisciplinary team, including technologists, to improve the quality of patient care.
o Justify the need for a nurse informaticist in a health care organization.
• Competency 2: Implement evidence-based strategies to effectively manage protected health information.
o Explain evidence-based strategies that the nurse and interdisciplinary team can use to effectively manage patients protected health information (privacy, security, and confidentiality).
• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
o Follow APA style and formatting guidelines for citations and references.
o Create a clear, well-organized, and professional proposal that is generally free from errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.