PURPOSE
The purpose of this assignment is to investigate smartphone and social media use in healthcare and to apply professional, ethical, and legal principles to their appropriate use in
healthcare technology.
Course Outcomes
This assignment enables the student to meet the following course outcomes.
- CO #4: Investigate safeguards and decision making support tools embedded in patientcare
technologies and information systems to support a safe practice environment
for both patients and healthcare workers. (PO 4) - CO #6: Discuss the principles of data integrity, professional ethics, and legal requirements related to data security, regulatory requirements, confidentiality, and client's right to privacy. (PO 6)
- CO #8: Discuss the value of best evidence as a driving force to institute change in the delivery of nursing care (PO 8)
See Course Schedule in Syllabus. The college’s Late Assignment Policy applies to this activity.
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE
This assignment is worth a total of 240 points.
Requirements
- Research, compose, and type a scholarly paper based on the scenario described below, and choose a conclusion scenario to discuss within the body of your paper. Reflect on lessons learned in this class about technology, privacy concerns, and legal and ethical issues and addressed each of these concepts in the paper, reflecting on the use of smartphones and socialmedia in healthcare. Consider the consequences of such a scenario. Do not limit your review of the literature to the nursing discipline only because other health professionals are using the technology, and you may need to apply critical thinking skills to its applications in this scenario.
- Use Microsoft Word and APA formatting. Consult your copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition, as well as the resources in Doc Sharing if you have questions (e.g., margin size, font type and size (point), use of third person, etc.). Take advantage of the writing service Smart Thinking, which is accessed by clicking on the link called the Tutor Source, found under the Course Home area.
- The length of the paper should be four to five pages, excluding the title page and the
referencepage. Limit the references to a few key sources (minimum of three
required). - The paper will contain an introduction that catches the attention of the reader, states
the purpose of the paper, and provides a narrative outline of what will follow
(i.e., the assignment criteria). - In the body of the paper, discuss the scenario in relation to HIPAA, legal, and other
regulatoryrequirements that apply to the scenario and the ending you chose.
Demonstrate support fromsources of evidence (references) included as in?text
citations. - Choose and identify one of the four possible endings provided for the scenario, and construct your paper based on its implications to the scenario. Make recommendations about
what shouldhave been done and what could be done to correct or mitigate the
problems caused by thescenario and the ending you chose. Demonstrate support
from sources of evidence (references)included as intext citations. - Present the advantages and disadvantages of using smartphones and social media in
healthcareand describe professional and ethical principles to the appropriate
use of this technology, based on facts from supporting sources of evidence,
which must be included as in? Text citations. - The paper’s conclusion should summarize what you learned and make reflections about them to your practice
- Use the “Directions and Assignment Criteria” and “Grading Rubric” below to guide your writingand ensure that all components are complete.
- Review the section on Academic Honesty found in the Chamberlain Course Policies. All work must be original (in your own words). Papers will automatically be submitted to
Turnitin when submitted to the Dropbox. - Submit the completed paper to the “We Can, but Dare We?” Dropbox by the end of Week
3.Please refer to the Syllabus for due dates for this assignment. For online
students, please postquestions about this assignment to the weekly Q & A
Forums so that the entire class may viewthe answers.
Preparing for the Assignment
BACKGROUND
Healthcare is readily embracing any technology to improve patient outcomes, streamline operations, and lower costs, but we must also consider the impact of such technology on privacy
and patient care.
This technology includes the use of social media applications, such as Facebook, Instagram,
Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn on smartphones.
In healthcare today, smartphones are widely used for communication, efficiency, and care. Obviously, a variety of issues (ethical, professional, and legal) from both the personal
and hospital perspectives must be considered.
SCENARIO
You are a nurse in the emergency room, working the Friday 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and your evening
has been filled with the usual mix of drunken belligerent teens, wailing babies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, falls, fractures, and the routine, regular congestive heart failure (CHF) patients. Your best
friend is texting you from the concert that you had to miss tonight because you
were scheduled to work, and you respond to her between care of patients,
jealous that she is there and you are not. “What a jerk to torture me like
this!” you think to yourself. It is now 2 a.m., and the medics radio once again,
notifying you of an incoming motor vehicle accident victim, ETA of 5 minutes. You
sigh and opt to use the restroom, rather than getting that much? needed cup of
coffee, and prepare a room for your next patient. The medics roll in and begin
to fill you in. The patient is a 28? year? old male, a passenger on a bus that was
involved in a crash, leaving the vehicle overturned after rolling over an
embankment. There were several fatalities among the bus passengers, and “this
victim has remained unconscious, though his vitals are currently” . . . and as
you start to focus on the patient, you take a second look. Can it be? It is! The
lead singer, Jerod, from the band “Blue Lizards,” who you have adored since you
first heard his voice! The band had just left the concert that you had missed
last evening when the accident occurred. You quickly text your best friend . .
. “Can you believe?” and she responds with “Yeah, right. PROVE IT.” So you
quickly snap a picture with your smartphone, when alone with the patient, and
send it to her. Can’t hurt, right? Celebrities are “public property,” and that’s
a part of their life, right? Just for good measure, you snap a few more
pictures of the unconscious singer in various stages of undress and then a shot
of his home address, phone number, and demographic information from his
electronic health record. You sit your phone down on the bedside table for a
minute as you continue your assessment of the patient. At 7:00 a.m., you drag
your tired body home and straight to bed after a long but eventful night. What
happens next? Choose an ending to the scenario, and construct your paper based
on those reflections:
1. You are the following nurse on the day shift and discover the night nurse’s phone on the
bedside table. While trying to figure out to whom it belongs, you open the phone
and see the photographs taken the night before. Holy moly! What a find, and
nobody could trace you to the photos.
2. You receive a call from the gossip paper the Gossip Gazette, offering you $20,000 for the
photos you have taken (courtesy of your best friend). Your identity would never
be revealed, and you desperately need a new car and are behind on some bills.
3. You go on Facebook, on your day off, and talk about the night you had at work and how you didn’t really feel as bad having to miss the concert, because you actually got to meet
Jerod in person and even “Got his number!” You then post a picture of Jerod on
Facebook and Instagram, figuring that most of your contacts would never
recognize him anyway. It’s your day off and your personal time, so no harm, no
foul, right?
4. You receive a message the next morning from a peer at work that there is a big
investigation being conducted at work due to a HIPAA violation and that it
involved a celebrity who had been admitted to the hospital. The word is that
legal action is being taken against the hospital due to some photos that were
sold to the Gossip Gazette. Knowing that the photo you sent is safe with your
best friend, you reach for your smartphone, but it is nowhere to be found.
